Channing Tatum has shared his candid thoughts about fatherhood, and the importance of setting boundaries with his 10-year-old daughter, Everly.
The 43-year-old actor spoke about his child, whom he shares with ex-wife Jenna Dewan, during Tuesday’s episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna. Asked what kind of parent he is, Tatum said that while he has “no idea” what his parenting strategy is, he’s simply doing his best to care for Everly.
“I’m just trying to get by, I think just like every other parent, you’re just kind of trying not to mess kids up, but you know you’re going to on some level,” he explained.
However, he noted how his perspective on setting rules has changed over the years since he became a parent.
“When I knew I was going to have a kid…I planned to be the parent, actually, that was probably going to get my kid into more trouble than I kept her out of,” he said. “And as they get older, you kind of realise, ‘I have to set boundaries.’”
Tatum then explained why his daughter ultimately appreciates him when he sets these boundaries.
“Even though they don’t want boundaries, they do want boundaries,” he said. “Her anxiety goes down, her stress level goes down when she just understands the rules.”
The Magic Mike star also talked candidly about his own childhood and how it affected the way in which he raises his daughter. More specifically, he explained how his parenting habits aren’t the same as his father’s.
“I was raised very, very different,” the actor said. “South — dad just, ‘Touch that again, you’re going to get a whipping’ sort of situation and we don’t spank Evy, so it’s one of those gentle kind of things, but having to learn where to be strong, where to be firm, but not in the way I was.”
This isn’t the first time that Tatum has spoken out about his relationship with his daughter. Earlier this year, he shared his plans to be open with his daughter about his careers, including how he used to be a stripper.
“When she’s old enough to watch them, we’ll have that conversation,” he said of his Magic Mike films during an interview with Entertainment Tonight in January. “There’s no version of me not having the conversation of: ‘Dad didn’t just do them in movies, I was an actual stripper,’ so I’m not gonna lie to her.”
Elsewhere in his interview with Today, he explained how fatherhood encouraged him to write his new children’s book, The One and Only Sparkella and the Big Lie. This is the third book for his series Sparkella.
“I was looking up YouTube on how to braid hair. Like, I didn’t want to be the dad that was just delivering a kid to school looking like she had just slept on the street,” the Dear John star said. “This series of books kind of came from that. It was really trying to figure out how to talk to a little girl.”