ACT LIKE YOU GOT SOME SENSE

Academy Award–winning actor Foxx recounts raising two daughters in challenging times.

“Dad Rule No. 1,” writes the author, is simple: “You gotta show up.” His own childhood was marked by such presence. Following his parents’ divorce, he was raised by a grandmother who gave him the tough-love lesson “that you can entertain yourself on your own side of the street.” His daughters, brimming with self-confidence, take delight in testing him—e.g., when he asked 13-year-old Anelise to get off the phone for two minutes, to which she responded by setting a timer for precisely two minutes. “I don’t mean literally,” said Foxx. “Then you should say what you mean,” she replied. They also take pleasure in teaching him. “All grown people do is talk about people that are different,” asserts 27-year-old Corinne, arguing that her generation has no interest in making distinctions on the basis of sexuality, religion, or other dividing lines. Foxx rightly prizes the good sense and solid values he has instilled in his daughters, but he also notes that parents must push their children to explore the world and make ethical and moral decisions for themselves. “Just be careful if they go too far,” he adds, “because they might need an exorcism”—or, as when one of the children ate a pot brownie by mistake, a talking-down. A major part of the work of raising daughters, Foxx concludes, is to empower them, “which means being honest with them about the challenges they will face and showing them that they have the ability to overcome them.” It helps to have the financial resources that Foxx has acquired in his decades in Hollywood, but the lessons he imparts, both humorous and serious, are applicable just about everywhere.

A practical, sometimes profane, always entertaining guide to the fine art of parenting.