If you’re a parent, you know when your kids get to a certain age, you become cringe. It’s just the (odd) circle of life. Usher’s kids are at that stage and according to him, don’t want him at events not just because he’s their dad, but because of his fame. He gave us a peek into his life as a daddy during an interview on the Club Shay Shay podcast with Shannon Sharpe.
“My kids – sometimes, they don’t want me to come,” the 45-year-old crooner told Sharpe during the episode. “They don’t want me to be at their basketball game or their recital, or they wanna be very, very low-key, ‘cause they don’t want that energy.”
He added, “They don’t want, ‘Oh Dad walked into the room and took—’ ” he said, as Sharpe jumped in, “All their focus off me.”
“And it’s hard, because I try my hardest to have that empathy, but I wanna be there,” the dad went on to say.
While Raymond understands where his kids are coming from, he also wants to be there for those special moments. That’s why when he does attend, he tries to be as under the radar as possible.
He recalls countless times he’s been in the back of events trying to “keep myself as small as possible and be as quiet as I possibly can.”
The “Yeah!” singer also acknowledged that his kids growing up in a celebrity household means they don’t have the same “normal” as other kids.
“That is a harsh reality, which is more the reason why you gotta be harder on them. But mindful that their normal is different than our normal … the expectation is actually higher. That’s the one thing that I have empathy for my children,” the singer said.
Usher has four children–Usher “Cinco” V, 16 and Naviyd Ely, 15, with his ex-wife, Tameka Foster. The other two children include his daughter, Sovereign Bo, 3, and son, Sire Castrello, 2, with current girlfriend, Jenn Goicoechea.
It’s always heartwarming to see parents show up for their kids. Especially when, like Usher, they didn’t grow up with a parent themselves. The singer has acknowledged how such an absence affected him and the way he approaches fatherhood.
In 2008, he told ESSENCE that he evaluated “what I feel like I missed from my own father — knowing that I was accepted. That I mattered. And hearing that he cared enough to put me before himself.” Because of that experience, Raymond vowed to give his children the support and security he didn’t have growing up. It looks like he’s a man of his word.
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