World renowned basketball player, entrepreneur, and overall nice guy are just a few things that describe Shaq. He is also a father of six and definitely has a plethora of parenting tips to share. In a recent interview with PEOPLE Every Day Podcast, Shaquille O’Neal shares how he parents his six kids.
“I have six wonderful kids,” Shaq said on the podcast. “Not a lot of discipline is needed. Their mothers did wonderful, beautiful jobs of that. So my job is just keeping them into the game, have fun.”
In the midst of parenting during a pandemic, O’Neal said that this is a time for parents to “mix it up.”
“You just have to mix it up as a dad. [You] just can’t tell them, ‘Go to your room and stay there,’ because they’ll get miserable. So you just have to have fun with them an hour, rest, have fun with them an hour, rest. Then you also got to give them a space to let them do their own thing.”
So, just how do Taahirah, Amirah, Mearah, Myles, Shareef, and Shaqir “mix it up” with their famous dad?
Well, some of the fun includes making silly dance videos, other at-home activities, and of course, shooting hoops is a must.
“Fortunately we have a gym in the house, so I work out with them a lot. But they’re at that age where you can just tell them what to do and they already know how to do it. When they were young, we said ‘fundamentals, this, this, this, that.'”
O’Neal continued, “When they became pretty good players. I said, ‘Hey, I need you to go shoot 25 jumpers. If you get 10 in a row, you get to leave early, but I need you to put the camera there, put it on and record it, and let me see you shoot, and then I’ll go watch it later.’ I can fix anything and correct it, but I don’t want to be the voice that’s in their head all the time. I’ll just get in and out.”
Shaq can unquestionably add great dad to the list and parenting expert too! To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click here and enjoy.
