Kelly and Matthew Stafford are parents to four daughters — Sawyer (8), Chandler (8), Hunter (7), and Tyler (5). And, going by their social media presence and Kelly’s candid podcast revelations, the Staffords have always been hands-on parents.
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From sharing family vacations to openly discussing the ups and downs of motherhood on The Morning After podcast, Matthew Stafford’s wife has never shied away from revealing the joy and struggles of raising four girls so close in age.
But in the latest edition of her podcast, Kelly admitted that one of her daughters, whom she didn’t name, has been testing her patience in ways she never expected. Stafford revealed that the situation has grown so difficult that, at times, she no longer recognizes the little girl she once knew.
“She has become a little girl that I don’t recognize right now,” Stafford’s better half confessed. “I’m trying to be mild with it. [It looks like] Behaviour issues… It has started to trickle [from] sports… Disrespecting coaches, not listening, giving attitude, walking away while they’re talking to her.”
Kelly’s breaking point, tolerating her daughter’s attitude, came at home when she overheard an exchange between her and one of her other girls, Tyler. The 5-year-old sweetly complimented her sister’s outfit, only to be met with a cold response: “You look gross.”
Kelly admitted that her blood boiled when she heard the comment: “The fury in me in that moment… It was a lot for me to hold back.” As a result, she punished her daughter on the spot, cancelling plans to attend a cookout with her friends.
From there, Kelly tried different approaches to reach her daughter. She grounded her, made her stay in her room for hours, and then even forced a long walk in the summer heat. But nothing worked.
“I don’t know what to do anymore. I am struggling with you,” Kelly told her daughter, while asking if comparisons with her sisters were causing her to behave in such a manner.
After repeated lack of success, Kelly had to resort to warning speeches. “If I see you being mean and a bully for no reason… [then] You’ll be walking every morning and every afternoon to clear your head,” she said, hoping for an improvement in her child’s behavior.
However, just three days later, another questionable incident happened at school. Kelly, as expected, followed through with the warning, making her daughter walk home. But this time, the punishment broke her as much as it did her daughter.
“I cried the entire f**king time she was walking home,” confessed Kelly, adding that her other daughters cried too.
Her podcast co-host, Hank, was kind enough to assure Kelly that she and Matthew are great parents, and this may just be their daughter entering her ‘rebel’ phase. But Kelly iterated that more than the indiscipline, what’s hurting her is fighting to bring back the child she knows is still there.
This honesty from Kelly highlights what many parents quietly face: The battle of guiding a child through difficult phases without losing them along the way.
Likewise, this phase is also a journey of growth for the child, as they go from ‘parents don’t know anything’ to ‘parents did know something.’ This isn’t going to be an easy journey for both parties, and we can only wish the Staffords all the luck from our side.
