Peaches. Lena James. Fish Mooney. Stony. Lyric.
Jada Pinkett Smith has played some pretty iconic characters, but we know her best as Jaden and Willow’s mom–and host of the new Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk.
Alongside daughter Willow and her own mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, Jada explores topics like sex and body image through multi-generational conversations. “My introduction to sex was obviously walking in on you and Daddy,” Willow reveals in an episode.
Recently, Jada and movie star husband Will Smith shared how they’re redefining what it means to be married with Red Table Talk’s audience of 3.5 million followers. In “Becoming Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Our Unique Union,” the couple discusses the struggles they’ve faced in their partnership.
The MOMS Network gave a select group of NYC moms and bloggers the opportunity to chat with Jada and Adrienne about their parenting experiences and the new season of Red Table Talk while browsing The MOMS Marketplace, a new shopping platform designed to share products and stories that support mom entrepreneurs.
Jada shared honestly about her parenting hits and misses, the way that her relationship with her father influenced her marriage, and the lessons her mother instilled in her as a Baltimore teen.
On her parenting mistakes:
While we’ve seen Jaden and Willow grow over the years, few of us knew that Will and Jada had a hand in raising three other children, including Trey, Will’s son from his first marriage, Jada’s goddaughter Tamira, and Will’s nephew, Kyle.
Jada admits that she made some early mistakes in her parenting. “…I learned a lot from Tamira, and I learned a lot from Kyle, and I learned a lot from Trey…and Jaden and Willow really got a lot of the benefits of the mistakes that I made with the three older kids.”
Although there were a few missteps, she reminded the room of moms that, “It’s never to late to reestablish your relationship with your kids and take it into another trajectory.”
On she and Will’s unique parenting style:
The free spirited Smith kids have expressed their talents and unorthodox thinking through music (Jayden’s debut album “Syre” was released in 2017 and is certified gold, Willow’s “Whip My Hair” hit the airwaves when she was just 11), fashion (Jaden modeled womenswear for Louis Vuitton, while Willow was named Chanel’s Brand Ambassador at age 15), and social media (clocking in at 10.3m and 3.7m followers on Instagram, respectively).
In 2016, a journalist referred to the superstar couple’s children as “überentitled, brainless, self-adoring, twaddle-spewing little munchkins,” and claimed that Will and Jada “couldn’t be bothered to raise kids with any grounding in reality.”
When questioned about how they’re raising their children Jada replied, “You’re learning! You know, we all get into stuff. You’re gonna try out stuff that’s…a little dangerous, you’re gonna get into stuff that’s a little risky, but you’ve gotta try it to know. And I’d rather you do it when you’re under my roof.”
On giving teens the space to be themselves:
As a teen in Baltimore, Maryland, Jada was different. She attended a performing arts school alongside the late Tupac Shakur (she discusses their friendship in Episode 2) and had a style that was all her own.
“It wasn’t what my mother told me, it was what she showed me. My mother allowed me to be who I was when I was a teenager, which really gave me the confidence–like, if I dyed my hair blue, wearing the crazy clothes I used to wear…it really developed a sense of my individuality and confidence. That’s before blue hair was in! So I’m walkin’ through the hood of Baltimore, with some blue hair…but just being able to walk in the streets as myself, gave me a sense of self. So I learned that from her allowing me that, and then I passed that on to my kids.”
On self care:
When asked about how often Jada practices meditation, Adrienne shouts, “It’s every day, and it’s FOREVER!”
Jada explains, “It happened about seven years ago…I definitely needed a spiritual transformation…usually on the daily, I try to at least get an hour in.” However, she understands that busy moms may not have that kind of time. “You can do meditation or even just, a nice bath. Just you time every day. If you can take fifteen minutes, if you can take half an hour,…however amount of time you can have, to just do one thing that’s for you…whatever that thing is that brings you joy and peace–it doesn’t have to be meditation.”
Thanks to The MOMS Network for hosting this intimate conversation with Jada and Adrienne! Be sure to catch new episodes of Red Table Talk every Monday on Facebook Watch.
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