and his wife Ashanti are opening up about their parenting styles as they raise their first child together.
The couple, who feature in Peacock’s new reality series Nelly and Ashanti: We Belong Together, got candid about their different approaches.
“For me, obviously this is my first child,” Ashanti, 43, shared with People Magazine. She described herself as “very mama bear-ish” with 11-month-old son KK, whose full name is Kareem Kenkaide Haynes.
“We have to boil everything and sanitise everything. Everything has to be organic. His sheets are organic, his socks, food-grade silicone, everything,” the Grammy-winning singer went on. “I’m just very, very protective.”
Meanwhile, 50-year-old Nelly said he has a more relaxed view, being a father of four other older children.
“I think I understand a little bit more about children. They learn more on their own,” said Nelly who is also dad to Shawn, Chanelle, Sydney, and Cornell.
Despite his fatherly leisure, Nelly admitted to being “safety overprotective” and Ashanti being “motherly overprotective.”
“I know if they don’t learn certain things by the time they reach a certain age, we’re going to pay for that, I promise you. And it’s going to backfire on us in a big way,” he told the magazine.
Looking ahead, Nelly joked that Ashanti might rethink her strict ways once KK turns 17.
“Right now I know she’s loving it, but that boy turns 17 or 18, she going to be like, ‘Why is he acting like this?’ And I’m going to ask [Ashanti’s mom and manager, Tina Douglas] for that video of him being three. And I’m going to say, ‘You see this right here when he used to…'”
On a concluding note, Nelly admitted that Ashanti is a “great” mom to KK. “I have no complaints. I wish all mothers could see the way that she gets down a little bit,” he said. “You wish every kid had that type of love.”
