12 Celebrities With Unconventional Parenting Styles
Published on April 26, 2018.Being a parent can’t possibly be easy when you’re a celebrity. The whole world is watching your every move and, if you don’t perform your parental duties as expected, judgment follows. These 12 celebrities have unconventional parenting styles and not everyone agrees with their methods.
12. Candace Cameron
Candace Cameron received a lot of heat for using corporal punishment with her children. According to The Hollywood Gossip, the actress wrote a blog back in 2004 where she revealed that she uses the book To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl as a guideline for raising her children and the Pearls advocate for the use of strict corporal punishment to teach children obedience. Bure has spoken openly about her use of corporal punishment, claiming that it creates “boundaries” for children; however, at least three children have reportedly died from the methods the Pearls have advocated.
Editorial credit: / Shutterstock.com11. Mama June
When viewers watching Toddlers & Tiaras saw Mama June feeding her daughter, Honey Boo Boo, Go Go Juice, a mixture of Mountain Dew and Red Bull, many of them were outraged. According to Good Morning America, a bottle of Go Go Juice contains as much as two cups of caffeine, which is a lot of caffeine for a six-year-old child. Mama June defended her choice, saying, “There are normal people who give their kids this. Why is it such a big issue with us pageant moms that do it all weekend to keep our kids energized and awake? There are far worse things… I could be giving her alcohol.”
Source: Metro10. Gisele Bundchen
Gisele practiced elimination communication with her son, Benjamin, which means she didn’t use diapers. Instead, she learned to read his signals and then held him over the toilet when he needed to use the washroom. One of her big issues with diapers was the waste that they created. “Diapers pollute the environment,” she commented. “Where does this garbage go?”
Source: Gisele Bundchen’s Instagram9. Kourtney Kardashian
Kourtney Kardashian is a proponent of attachment parenting, a controversial parenting philosophy that encourages parents to co-sleep with their children. She has always been open about the fact that she shared a bed with Mason until he was ready to sleep on his own and she and Penelope also co-slept. As most people saw on the show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, this parenting method ended up causing a lot of issues in her relationship with Scott because they didn’t get any alone time at night.
Source: Kourtney Kardashian’s Instagram8. Gwyneth Paltrow
When Gwyneth Paltrow revealed in her book It’s All Good that she had her husband at the time, Chris Martin, and their two children, Apple and Moses, on a low carb, gluten-free diet, a major backlash followed. One London-based nutritionist commented that Paltrow was doing her children harm. “Kids need carbohydrates because it gives them glycogen which keeps your brain going. Without it they won’t be able to think straight as their brain won’t be functioning and their thinking patterns will be slow,” Yvonne Wake said.
Source: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Instagram7. Mayim Bialik
Mayim Bialik received a lot of backlash over her book, Beyond the Sling, for advocating for co-sleeping, diaper-less potty-training and breastfeeding on the child’s schedule, as well as gentle discipline, meaning no spanking, yelling or timeouts. People seemed particularly offended by the fact that she breastfed one of her sons, Fred, until he was four years old. Bialik stuck to her guns though. “Just because you do something your way doesn’t mean you can judge people who don’t. … I don’t think I’m a better mom and my kids aren’t necessarily better off than yours,” she said.
Source: Mayim Bialik’s Instagram6. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith have received a lot of criticism for how much autonomy they have given their two children, Jaden and Willow. These two don’t use disciplinary action with them. Instead, they make them take responsibility for their actions in a different way – by making them explain their choices to him. “So when they do things – and you know, Jaden, he’s done things – you can do anything you want as long as you can explain to me why that was the right thing to do for your life,” Will said.
Editorial credit: / Shutterstock.com5. Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell admitted at the premiere of her IMAX movie Pandas that she uses a controversial tactic to get her daughter Delta to fall asleep – she and Dax Shephard lock her in her room. “My 3-year-old [Delta] decided to stop sleeping about nine months ago,” she said. “And every night, when we put her to bed, she turns the lights on, which annoys the 4-year-old [Lincoln], and she will move furniture, and she bangs on the door with different, hard toys. We switched the door knob. We turned the lock on the outside.” While that tactic might scare some kids, it works with Delta. “I’m sorry, I know that’s controversial. But we lock it when she gets in there, and we stand outside and say, ‘We love you, we will talk to you in the morning, but now, it’s time for sleep.’ And after about 10 minutes, she’ll wind herself down. And then, before we go to bed, obviously, we unlock it.”
Source: Kristen Bell’s Instagram4. Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson faced some major backlash when she revealed that she doesn’t have a problem spanking her children. In fact, according to her, it’s actually helped to stop her daughter’s undesirable behavior. “I’m like, ‘Hi, I’m going to spank you on the bottom if you don’t stop right now, this is ridiculous,’ and honestly it’s really helped. She doesn’t do that kind of stuff as often,” she said in an interview with 98.9 The Buzz. There were a lot of people on Facebook who don’t agree with her decision to spank her daughter. “Wish she would do some research making public ignorant comments. Spanking teaches violence,” one person wrote.
Source: Kelly Clarkson’s Instagram3. Farah Abraham
Farrah Abraham has been at the center of a number of parenting controversies. She’s had her daughter Sophia’s eyebrows waxes; she’s allowed her to wear makeup to school; and she even let her join SnapChat. But, when Abraham revealed that she allows eight-year-old Sophia to sleep in her bed and that she will continue to share a bed with her daughter until she’s 18, Twitter users attacked her for being inappropriate and called the choice “unhealthy.”
Source: Farrah Abraham’s Instagram2. The Duggar Family
In a police report from the Josh Duggar molestation investigation, at least one of the Duggar children revealed that their parents, Michelle and Jim Bob, had used “a rod” to spank them on more than one occasion. Whenever Michelle has been asked directly if she spanks her children, she has never directly answered the question and instead has talked about using positive reinforcement and encouragement with the kids.
TLC Beth Hall1. Alicia Silverstone
When Alicia Silverstone posted a video of herself feeding her son Bear by pre-chewing his food and passing it into his mouth through hers, controversy ensued. While medical practitioners called the practice unhygienic and argued that it can pass bacteria and viruses between mother and child, Silverstone defended the practice. “People have been feeding their kids that way for thousands for years. It’s a weaning process. Honestly, when I posted the video I was not thinking, so maybe I was like Cher! I think it’s adorable and it makes me laugh every time he does it,” she said.
Source: Alicia Silverstone’s Instagram
