Will and Jada Smith run an unconventional household. Willow’s shaved head aside, they seem to have raised some down to earth celebrity kids with some pretty lax new-age parenting methods. Smith notoriously doesn't believe in discipline. However, a life of privilege and being Will Smith’s son hasn’t stopped 14-year-old son Jaden from seeking emancipation for some peculiar reasons.
Most child stars seeking emancipation do it to circumvent child labor laws or gain control of their finances away from derelict parents or legal guardians. According to radaronline, Jaden is trying to branch out and become his own man before his 15th birthday so that he can get his own bachelor pad.
“He says, ‘Dad, I want to be emancipated.’ I know if we do this, he can be an emancipated minor, because he really wants to have his own place, like ‘Ooh,’” Will told The Sun.
It’s a perilous path that child stars have straddled down taken before and the success rate is fairly low. The most notable examples of child stars include Drew Barrymore, Corey Feldman and Macauley Culkin (the Michael Beasley of child star flameouts).
I know Will used to think parents don’t understand, but there’s no scenario in which this is a good idea. They can come to a compromise and build Jaden his own pool house somewhere on their massive estate like the one Uncle Phil let him live in, but this is still odd. Jaden’s had some on-screen success, but aside from Karate Kid, he’s never been on a major set without his dad as a co-star.
I’ll give him props, though for asking. Most of the time these child emancipation cases involve contentious court battles and sordid details.
Quite frankly, among black Hollywood stars, emancipation is a pretty foreign concept. For some reason, there’s a racial disconnect there or maybe black childhood stars have shorter shelf lives than their Caucasian counterparts.
“That’s the backlash. On the other side, if kids just want to have command of their lives, I understand,” says Will.
For his part, Will seems okay with this. At a time when adult children are living at home until older ages than they ever have before, nothing's wrong with wanting to the kids to get independent at younger age if they're getting that money. Dads are always the first to let go, but I'm betting Jada doesn't didn't react so flippantly to this.
If any parent would understand Jaden's request, it would be the original Fresh Prince
