“I don’t like when women are dating and they present every guy they are dating as a boyfriend around the kids,” Chilli told ESSENCE. “It’s hard to not bring someone you are dating around your kid, but you don’t display affection in front of them. ‘This is mommy’s friend,’ and that’s so your kids aren’t confused and develop bad habits.” Do you agree?
“The family unit is better than one parent,” Taraji P. Henson told Babble. Henson says she keeps 20-year-old son Marcel surrounded by family. “He’s always had male camaraderie… I’m [also] teaching him how to pick really good women, but he knows because he’s around really incredible women: his family, friends, me.”
Actress Lauren London says she believes in maintaining a healthy environment for her 4-year-old son, despite no longer being with his father, rapper Lil Wayne. “I want him to know love and peace and balance,” she told Cocoa Fab. “I have no reason to dislike anyone or to have any conflict because the most important thing for me is for him to be raised in a peaceful environment.”
Regina King recently told Wendy Williams that she openly talks about sex with her 18-year-old son Ian Jr. “I think it’s important for him to know that… he’s young right now and most of the part about sex is just to get off you know? But he needs to know that there is more to it than that you know,” said King.
“We put the kids first,” said Garcelle Beauvais of ex-husband Mike Nilon. “I think they shouldn’t be part of adult drama. We also respect what makes us a family.” Beauvais said she still celebrates birthdays with her ex “to teach [the kids] how to treat a parent.”
In an interview with Brooklyn Magazine, Solange shared how she had moved back East with her son Julez after living in Los Angeles because it allowed her to ask her family to chip in. “We really wanted Julez to have the experience that we had growing up—being able to drop in on his aunt’s house and being able to hang out with Grandma,” she said.
“I make sure that the fathers are active,” Erykah Badu told ESSENCE of the fathers of her three children. “The queendom is in Dallas. Various times in the year, everybody’s there at once, and we all get along. Those are my brothers, I don’t get in their business, they don’t get in mine, but we’re very cognizant of what’s going on with our children.”
