Eminem has been praised by a leading child psychology expert for his parenting skills after the rapper told a U.S. news show he has banned swearing around the house.
His albums always come with parental advisory warnings, but Eminem insists on keeping things clean at home when his 14-year-old daughter Haillie and ex-wife Kim Mathers daughter from another marriage are present.
The rapper is also raising Mathers' niece Lainey.
In a 60 Minutes interview that aired on Sunday (10Oct10), newsman Anderson Cooper took the hip-hop superstar to task over the expletives and harsh language he uses in his hits, prompting Eminem to state, "It's your job to parent them (kids). If you're the parent, be a parent."
And he insisted he's not an angry, cursing man about the house, revealing, "Profanity around my house? No... I'm a parent. I have daughters. I mean, how would I really sound, as a person... walking around my house (saying), 'B**ch, pick this up,' you know what I mean? I don't cuss."
And top Beverly Hills psychologist Dr. Fran Walfish, the author of new book The Self-Aware Parent, has commended Eminem for talking openly about the language he uses around his girls - and his self-censorship, considering his tough upbringing surrounded by drugs, bullies and the harsh realities of life.
She says, "Eminem had no model for good parenting; he was born to a 15-year-old mother and his father abandoned him when he was six months old, never to return. Clearly, he wants to do things differently and better than his parents did and it's great that he wants to model appropriate use of language for his young daughters at home.
"Eminem is sober, intelligent, sensitive, and motivated. All traits that make him well on his way to be a Self-Aware Parent."
But Dr. Walfish feels he should be more accountable to the young fans he appeals to when it comes to the bad language that peppers his songs: "I think, too, that pop artists who appeal to and capitalise on young preteens and teens have some accountability for the content they feed the kids."
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