Actress and TV personality, Khanyi Mbau’s parenting style has come under fire after she revealed that her daughter lives in her own apartment at age 15.
She was speaking during a dinner sit down on the African reality show ,’Young, Famous & African’ which has premiered on Netflix.
Khanukani (Khanz) Mbau is a daughter with public figure Mandla Mthembu, Khanyi said she chooses to be a liberal parent.
“We allow Khanz to be herself, if she wants to try stuff, I mean anything… we let her try it. Cause we want to see who this person is,” she said.
Fellow cast member and TV presenter, Andile Ncube, asked Khanyi where she drew the line because her daughter was just a teenager.
“But then where do you draw the line? What happens when she’s curious about sex at 15?,” asked the father of two.
Khanyi, clearly set in her ways, responded, “Virginity can be lost or it can be stolen. So lost is when you are ready and it's a boy you think you are going to marry, you give it away. You love this guy, you are 15, you think you are going to marry him… you give it away.
“I said there’s no age for it. You can give away your virginity tomorrow night. It’s worse because you sleep in your own apartment,” she said.
While some may agree with Khanyi’s parenting style, Annie Macaulay-Idibia, Nigerian model and mother-of-two disagreed: “She’s too young. This thing didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t like what I was hearing. She is still young, she might not be able to make the right decisions. Regardless of how you speak with her, she’s still 15.”
It’s evident that parents have different parenting styles, some more progresive than others.
Progressive parenting, also known as indulgent or permissive parenting, mostly allows children to do what they want, and offers limited guidance or direction.
It’s said that this kind of parent often only steps in when there’s a serious problem. They usually take on more of a friend role than a parental role. They often typically don’t put much effort into discouraging poor choices or bad behaviour.
While we may think that those kinds of parents might be vocal on Twitter, seemingly some disagree.
An influencer who is not shy about sharing her opinion, Chris Excell said: “the fact that our parents couldn’t allow us to watch Bold and beautiful or Gaz’lam because of sex.
“But kids of today comfortably watch Khanyi Mbau being banged with their parents without any shame and they call it progressive parenting. Nonsense!!!!!”
One social media user said, “but we all know that when you are stopping your child from doing something they get more influenced to do it more. Look at it in this way: if your parents told you not to have sex wouldn't you want to find out yourself what sex is? Same applies to The Wife.”
Another one said, “how will you teach/talk about sex with a person you even scared to ask go wash the dishes?”
We may disagree on parenting, but parenting is difficult, no matter how you cut it. But the goal, as parents, is to raise children who are happy, healthy, and self-sufficient.