Gabrielle Union Says She's a 'Psychotic' Mom to 18-Year-Old Stepsons, But Not to Kaavia
As much as we love seeing the glamorous aspects of Gabrielle Union’s life (that pool with a view!), it’s often much more rewarding to us as parents to see the moments when she faces the very same parenting challenges we have. Apparently, Drew Barrymore feels the same, as she pointed out on Wednesday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show.
“There’s a video that went viral of you and Kaavia; she’s upset about a bag, and she started kicking it,” Barrymore told Union over video chat on her show. “Sometimes I literally think that my kids are the only ones who are behaving this way, and it does make you feel like you’re alone… There’s not a Hallmark greeting card for ‘relief’ and there should be. Because I think we all feel relief when we see other parents going through the same thing.”
Union agreed, especially when it comes to Kaavia.
“Every day is a new surprise,” she said. “Watching her with that backpack … We’re watching her, and we’re like where is she getting this from? We’re all relatively peaceful zen masters in this house, so watching her, the ragey-rage. … That just came from inside of this little person.”
Union described how her experience with her daughter has been different from her approach to being a stepmother to Dwyane Wade’s other children, 13-year-old Zaya Wade, 18-year-old Zaire Wade, and 18-year-old Dahveon Morris, Wade’s sister’s son, whom he has been raising since he was 12. (Wade has another son, 6-year-old Xavier, who lives with his mother, Aja Metoyer.)
“We definitely had to get out of the one-size-fits-all parenting rather quickly,” Union told Barrymore. “With Kaav, we’re very much on the same page; same with Zaya. But with the 18-year-olds, I am the psychotic, overbearing, ‘What are you doing now?’ kind of parent, and my husband is like, ‘Eh, whatever, they are going to figure it out.’ And I’m like, ‘But we can help them figure it out if we just hover over them!’ So I’m learning to kind of let go.”
A post shared by Gabrielle Union-Wade (@gabunion) on Aug 19, 2020 at 10:16am PDT
Letting go has ironically proven to be harder now that Zaire and Dahveon are away at college.
“I probably talk to them more now that they’re gone out of the house than when we were all under the same roof,” she admitted. “It’s terrifying for me having them be across the country by themselves on these new journeys and we’re not right there, and it’s driving me crazy. And then the girl situation — I’ve become somebody that I hated dealing with when I was dating as a teen, I’m that mom.”
We can only imagine how the sparks are going to fly between mother and daughter when Kaavia’s a teenager. Please let there still be social media in that future time.
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