Parenthood varies from person to person, and everyone’s philosophy is uniquely shaped by how their childhood was. Shaquille O’Neal, for example, has different rules for his sons and daughters. The Diesel shared his parenting viewpoints on the latest edition of his Big Podcast program.
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The NBA legend discussed how his stepfather, Phillip Harrison, also enforced the “protect and provide” motto for his family, a motto that Shaq carried with him when raising his own kids. He shared a story of how one of his sons tried to convince him to get him an elaborate gift for doing well in school.
“I remember one of my sons, I said, ‘Hey, you get all As in school, get whatever you want.’ He come back, showed me the 600, [and] I said, ‘Bro, you ain’t getting a Benz.'” However, Shaq does tend to be a little more lenient and giving to his daughters. “The girls I like to spoil,” he admitted.
When one of his guests asked how his sons deal with that, the four-time NBA Champion explained that he taught his boys the same ideologies he was taught as a young man.
“I don’t want to say they get upset, but they understand,” Shaq stated. “I told them, I said, ‘Listen bro, your sister is gonna get a lot more than you guys get. That’s just the way it is.'”
It’s not that Shaq doesn’t buy anything for his boys. In the same podcast, he joked, “Chargers for boys and Benzes for girls.” The Diesel certainly has the wallet to treat his kids, but he’s not that type of father.
“You can’t touch daddy’s cheese until you get two degrees,” stated Shaq in an interview on the Jennifer Hudson Show one year ago. It was something he said as a joke, yet he meant it at the same time.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. Shaq’s ideology is that he didn’t want his kids to not assert themselves in life just because he had a huge bank account.
Would it be different if he were a poorer man? Who knows! But that shouldn’t be the only qualifier for a good father.
