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Jada Pinkett Smith And TheMoms Afternoon Tea Conversation About How To Stop Human Trafficking

She’s mentioned this once, twice, okay far more than that, but in a new interview with PEOPLE, Jada Pinkett Smith explained why she doesn’t want to parent the way dictator Hugo Chávez governs Venezuela. The actress says she wants to have a partnership with her kids, which she believes empowers them. I wonder if she is trying to test the waters on some kind of parenting book called Don’t Cut A Switch, Switch Your Style: The Smith Guide To Parenting.

On having a partnership with their kids:

"I think that old school style of ‘I’m your parent and I’m greater than you’ doesn’t work. What I establish with my children is a partnership.

"I’m not necessarily dictating what is happening in their lives."

How she preps them for criticism:

By "instilling in [Willow] the power for individuality. We … communicate with our kids in a way that our message overpowers any other message that they get out there."

On shielding them from gossip about their family:

"We can’t control what our kids learn anymore. We have to inform them and have real conversations … and [create] that foundation of them feeling assured in themselves."

On empowering their kids:

"I think for our children … they feel like we really care and they come to us and go, ‘Mommy, I’m having this problem.’  And it’s like, ‘Okay, let’s figure this out together.’ And it empowers them."