Channing Tatum: kids come out how theyre going to be, you get 10-15% influence

May 2024 · 4 minute read


Channing Tatum has a new-ish interview with Fatherly promoting his second Sparkella children’s book, The One and Only Sparkella Makes a Plan. The first one, The One and Only Sparkella, came out in May of last year and parents love it. (It has 4.8 stars, over 1,000 ratings and an A on Fakespot.) To Fatherly, Channing mentions his fears about being a single parent to his daughter, Everly, nine. His approach is just to figure out what Everly likes and participate in that with her, whether it’s building a funky birdhouse or playing dress up. It’s really quite sweet and child-centric. He talks a lot about being there for his daughter, both physically and emotionally. You can tell he’s worked hard on this and that his books are an extension of that. Here’s some of that interview, and there’s much more at the source. He gets kind of deep at times.

On playing with his daughter
I’ve never been more creative in any movie or any creative venture I’ve ever done than I have been with my daughter…

My experience was just to go into her world and just be there with her. If she likes dragons, I’ll go be a dragon. If she likes witches, I’ll become a warlock. It’s really sort of that simple.

You don’t even need to be cute. You could just put on the dress and still be yourself. And it’s just going to be even funnier to them. Like you could be as grumpy and as tough and whatever as you want to be, wear the tiara.

On being fully present as a parent
Man, some days, 5 o’clock rolls around. I’m like my daughter’s been home for about an hour and a half, and then she’s just like, “Let’s play this.” And I’m like, “Oh, no. I just don’t have it in me today.”

But she knows when I’m not being really creative because I’ve given her too much too early. And I tried too hard too early, and she’s just like, “Dad, you’re phoning it in,” or she’s like, “Come on, play for real,” when she knows I’m phoning it in and I’m just tired.

The best advice he received about being a dad
I remember I was kind of stressed about becoming a dad, and I was on set talking to someone and said, “I’m having a girl… I feel like I’m going to screw this up.”

And this guy says to me, “I have four of them.” And I said, “Yeah, how’d that go?” And he’s like, “Look, let me just say this. They basically come out how they’re going to be. They come out who they are. You got about 10% to 15% on either end to affect the whole. As long as you love them, you’re going to be fine.”

I had Evie and I really understood what he meant because Evie came out who she was. There was so much already in the software that I didn’t teach her…

So I do believe there’s a certain part of kids that comes with the package. Like it just comes already predetermined. And as a parent, you have to teach them how they get to see you experience the world and how much you love them. And that 10% to 15% on either end of the thing is a lot and it can affect a lot.

[From Fatherly]

When my son was little he loved playing Minecraft, watching educational videos and learning things, and of course he’s still like that. As Channing mentioned, he’s always been this way! When he was little I would try to play Minecraft, although I would get lost easily and found it frustrating. It’s so impressive that little kids learn those formulas and strategies. I can’t play his games now but I try to understand them. When he was in grade school I would watch his math and science videos and ask him to explain them to me. It may not be our world, but we can join in. Channing understands that and is consciously working at it. It’s a joy to hear a celebrity dad explain parenthood like that. I also think he’s an underrated actor! He was great in Dog and I wish more people saw it. Magic Mike 3 can’t come soon enough.

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