Channing Tatum discussed his experiences as a single father raising his daughter and how his Sparkella books helped him.
The Magic Mike actor talked about his newest children’s book, The One and Only Sparkella and the Big Lie, and how it helped him comprehend fatherhood during an appearance on The Today Show.
Asked by host Hoda Kotb about the kind of father he is to his daughter Everly, whom he has with his ex-wife Jenna Dewan, the Hollywood actor said, “I have no idea, I don’t know.”
“All I’m trying to do is survive. You’re probably simply trying, like any other parent, to keep your kids out of trouble. But you already know you will, he said.
Channing Tatum Wants To Be A Good Parent For His Daughter
“When I found out I was having a child, I was like, ‘Alright, I’m probably trying to be a parent — I plan to be that parent — who is likely to get her into greater trouble than I keep her out of,'” Tatum added. You start to understand, “Oh, I have to set boundaries,” as they grow a little older.
Interestingly, kids demand limits even when they claim not to want them. When she simply comprehends the guidelines, her anxiety and tension levels decrease. And we call them the house rules, not even your rules,” he said.
In the episode, Channing Tatum shared the house rules, saying they include things like “you must constantly bring the dishes to the sink, you must pick up your garments, you must brush your pearly whites — simply normal, simple stuff.”
Bush Hager, a different host on the program, mentioned that Channing Tatum had his daughter about the same time he began writing the Sparkella books and inquired as to whether or not they had improved his understanding of parenting.
“Being a single parent was not in the cards, or at least not what I had planned to be. I was also somewhat anxious. She’s a girl, I said, thinking. I looked up how to braid her hair on YouTube,” Tatum admitted. “I didn’t want to be the dad who brought her to school when she still seemed to have been sleeping on the street. So, in a way, that is how this book series got its start. It was me truly learning how to communicate with a little girl,” he claimed.
