La Toya Jackson has praised her father Joe’s strict regime when she was growing up, insisting modern parents don’t demand respect from their children.
Joe Jackson was a tough dad to his showbiz kids, including son, Michael, who often spoke candidly about the beatings and whippings he suffered at the hands of his father. Joe also banned his children from referring to him as “dad”, ordering them instead to call him by his first name.
La Toya admits she can finally see why her father acted the way he did in her formative years, telling Piers Morgan, “I’m so happy I’m older and able to see things differently than I did when I was a bit younger. I understand. As you get older – I don’t have children of course – but when you start with nieces and nephews and raise them and watch them, you understand and realize why your parents did the things that they did.”
“I began to study my father – watch what he was doing, watch his ways, learn a little bit more about his parents and that taught me about him. I learned that my father was a loner, his mother wasn’t there for him, he was the one who raised his brothers and sisters. He was the one who walked five miles to school every day. He never had love himself so you can’t give away what you don’t have. He did have love in there but he didn’t know how to express it. Now he does.”
And she’s blasted parents who fail to instill discipline in their kids: “I think parents are too lenient with their kids today. I think we’ve really and truly lost the respect factor from children today. Children have absolutely no respect in regards to older people, elderly people. I would love to see children much more respectful. If you don’t teach your children respect, how are they going to go out in the world and respect other people? You must teach them this so they can understand – you give them respect, you get respect back, and that’s so important.”
