This Is Denise Richards’ "Biggest Mistake" She "Made as a Parent”
"They're smarter than us," The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills mom said of her teens.
Denise Richards is a great mother to her three children, but if she could change anything about her parenting strategy, there's one big thing.
"I think the biggest mistake I made as a parent was giving my kids a phone, to be honest with you," The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills mom said on the latest episode of the Daddy Issues podcast. They were about 8 or 9 years old at the time and she wanted them to be able to reach her at work or while on playdates.
"It is so hard to control the internet on the phone, even putting things on the phone to block it, it doesn’t work, they’re smarter than us," she said. "If I could go back and do anything over, I would definitely not give them a phone with access to social media and the internet."
She wasn't as concerned about her kids finding out about some of her racier work as she seems to be with the bullying culture of social media.
"They had heard I was in Playboy, I didn't think they knew what that is. Now kids can go on the internet and see all kinds of things."
She doesn't think her older kids are that keen to Google her or their father, Charlie Sheen.
"I don't think they wanna know certain things either, they've heard bits and pieces enough," she ventured. "I put myself in their place; I wouldn't want to read certain things about my parents."
She acknowledged that parenting is ever-evolving with technology and the times.
"Look how much things have changed in a short time," she said.
Richards elaborated on the differences between parenting now and when she was a kid on an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills After Show.
"My father put the fear of God into my sister and I that if we ever did drugs he would kick us out of the house. And I was like, in Illinois in the winter I don't want to be kicked out of the house, so I never tried anything," she said. "Here, you kick your kids out, they’ll go to another mansion, another family with f--king Postmates, and there’s f--king Ubers. They’d love to be kicked out," she sighed.
