Here’s Why ‘This Is Us’ Star Sterling K. Brown Says You Should Fight in Front of Your Children—and Where He Finds Parenting Advice
Not only does the Frozen II Star portray parenting life lessons on This Is Us, but he often shares parenting advice in his interviews. In the latest session with Us Weekly, Sterling K. Brown explained the reasons why it is crucial to fight in front of your children.
What is Sterling K. Brown’s family life like?
Brown is married to actress Ryan Michelle Bathe. The pair met at Stanford University in 1998 in their undergraduate dorm. They dated on and off in college and then married in 2007.
The couple has two sons—Andrew Jason Sterling Brown, 8, and Amare Michael Ryan Christian Brown, 3. Both Bathe and Brown are very open about their parenting styles. They both believe in showing their sons an honest and realistic example of marriage.
“Sterling told me he wanted a relationship that others could ‘see God in’ and that ‘inspired people to love each other and want to be married, Bathe told Essence.
Why do Brown and Bathe believe you should fight in front of your children?
“Arguing is part of a relationship,” Brown told Us Weekly. “It’s not the end of a relationship, but don’t go behind closed doors, so they don’t see the reconciliation. Then if they just see fighting and they don’t see the makeup, they think the relationship is about fighting.”
Rather than trying not to fight in front of your children, the This Is Us star believes you should be open so that they know how relationships work.
“The relationship has cycles,” he continued, “and you’ve got to share all of it with them so when they go out into the world, and they’re looking to partner with somebody to share their life, they’re like, ‘Look, we may argue, but we’re going to come back together when it’s all said and done.’ They’ve got to see it all.”
Children learn about their first relationships from watching their parents, so it’s important to let them see both the good and the bad.
Where does Brown find tips on parenting his two boys?
The Waves star admits that he learns new ways of parenting through each of the on-screen parents that he plays. Brown finds things that he wants to replicate and other items that he knows he does not want to do with his family.
For instance, the character of Ronald in Brown’s new movie Waves made him feel that he wanted to be sure he creates an environment where his children feel comfortable sharing everything.
He told Vox that he recently read a book titled The Conscious Parent, by Dr. Shefali Tsabary.
“Arguments are part of being in a couple, but reconciliation is also a part of the process,” he explained during the interview with Vox. “And you expose them to the totality of that.”
It sounds like Brown takes bits and pieces of advice from the stories he is telling on-screen, but backs up his parenting with research from reputable sources.
You can catch Brown as Randall Pearson, the parent of three girls, when This Is Us returns from winter break on Jan. 14, 2020.
