Tyler Perry is opening up about fatherhood, saying he was once overcome with emotion when he disciplined his eight-year-old son Aman for refusing to brush his teeth. During a sit-down chat with Michelle Obama on her Audible podcast, “The Light Podcast,” the filmmaker and actor, who is normally very private when it comes to his family, shared how his son’s bad behavior led him to have a compassionate conversation with him where Perry was left fighting back tears. The “Madea” star recalled one particular occasion when Aman was in the bathroom with the nanny, who has instructed him to brush his teeth — but Aman refused to comply
The “Madea” star recalled one particular occasion when Aman was in the bathroom with the nanny, who had instructed him to brush his teeth — but the boy refused to comply. Aman wasn’t aware that his dad was overhearing their conversation from the door as he waited for the nanny to leave the bathroom before he’d confront him about his behavior. “I got down eye-to-eye and talked to him,” he told Obama. “I said, ‘Listen to me, you are not going to be this way. We love you. We are your parents. You will not behave this way. We taught you better than this. You are a better kid than this. You’re going to be a better man than this.”
The 53-year-old said he eventually had to step out of the room because, in the midst of disciplining his son, Perry started to think about his own upbringing, saying there was never any compassionate talk being had if he misbehaved. “There was just yelling and cussing and what you’re not and what you’re never going to be.” Needless to say, the touching moment ultimately helped “heal” the little boy in Perry, who is taking a different approach to make his son understand right from wrong.
Perry, who shares his son with his ex Gelila Bekele, has previously spoken about the incident during a 2019 interview on “The Real.” While on the show, the Louisiana native went into greater detail about the moment he heard Aman being “really rude” to the nanny when she told him to brush his teeth.
Tyler Perry tells Black Business owners to shut up trying to prove to other people how great you are because you can make the best deals when you are underrated because you can own the backend equity and percentages. pic.twitter.com/aykttxmEcc
— Black Millionaires ® (@Blackmillions_) March 12, 2023
According to Perry, his son, and the nanny began to argue about it before his father was called to talk to him. After eavesdropping on their conversation from the door, Perry said he had a serious talk with Aman that his behavior was unacceptable and that neither of his parents raised him to disrespect his elders.
“And he’s just crying and crying, ‘Yes Papa, yes Papa.’ And as he’s crying, and I’m down on his level, I’m trying to hold my tears,” he said. “I get up and I leave out of the room, and Gelila goes, ‘You okay?’ Because nobody talked to me as a five-year-old like that.”