'Shark Tank' judge's parenting advice is surprisingly simple but effective: 'Let them...'
Let's be real, parenting is hard. Multibillionaire entrepreneur and 'Shark Tank' investor Mark Cuban recently shared some unexpectedly simple parenting tips that make a lot of sense and are worth listening to. Appearing on a recent episode of the 'Your Mom’s House' podcast, Cuban opened up about how he’s raising his three kids. Long story short, it all boils down to one thing: don’t overcomplicate things and just let your kids be themselves. When podcast co-host Robert Smith asked him how he avoids his fame and status from influencing his parenting, Cuban said, “You try to just let them be themselves. I try to not say you’ve got to go in this direction or that direction.”
For Cuban, it is important that his kids figure out who they are and what they want to do by themselves. He acknowledges that parents often unintentionally tend to project their fears and anxieties about raising “successful” children, but he tries not to give in to that. “I want them to go on their own path. Whatever it might be, I want them to be themselves. I don’t want them to be Mark Cuban’s kid for their entire lives,” he said.
The ‘Shark Tank’ star said that he and his wife, Tiffany Stewart, try their best to raise their kids as “normally” as possible, considering their wealth and celebrity status. They often discuss “how much is too much,” while providing for them. And their top priority? Encouraging curiosity. “Everything’s changing so rapidly, from a technological perspective, just the world in general. So, you know, just be curious,” he said. “That’s what I try to get them to do, right? Be curious so that you always want to learn something, and figure things out. The more knowledge you have, the more—not power, but the more capabilities you have, and the more options are available to you.”
From very early on in life, we love asking children what they want to be when they grow up. Unintentionally, this burdens them to choose their careers without exploring all their options or understanding what they truly love doing. Expecting children to have their entire life planned at 18 is really impractical, according to Cuban. “I was talking to one of my kids about college the other day, and it’s like, you don’t have to know what you’re going to be when you grow up,” he said, adding, “I don’t think any kid should be under the pressure at 18 or 22, when they graduate from college, to know exactly what they’re going to do.”
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While discussing the topic of inheritance, Cuban said that he wants to raise his children in a healthy way where they remain humble and grounded. He joked, “I’ve watched Succession. I don’t want it to be like that,” referring to the show’s toxic dynamics of a billionaire family fighting over money and power. And at the end of the day, all he wants to do is just be their father, saying that his favorite word in the world is 'Dad.’