Tabitha Brown talks ‘parent guilt’ and how conflict can build communication

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“Parents just don’t understand.” For many of us of a certain age, the refrain made popular by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the artist formerly known as the Fresh Prince was highly relatable in our youth. Now that we’re older than our parents were then, not so much.

The fact is, parents are just people trying to figure it out like everyone else; a truth made clear by Tabitha Brown and daughter Choyce in the third part of their conversation with DeVon Franklin. Franklin’s new Audible release, It Takes a Woman, revisits the wisdom and experiences he gleaned from the women who raised him, including a decades-old argument with his mother she reportedly regrets to this day.

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“Parent guilt is real,” Tabitha agrees, explaining the tough period that was Choyce’s adolescence actually strengthened their mother-daughter communication in the long run.

“During that time, there were so many disagreements—miscommunication, no communication, over-communication—[there] was so much of that that I feel like it trained us and prepared us to communicate.”

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Tabitha and Choyce Brown talk confidence vs. code-switching

Another benefit of what Tabitha calls a “six-year boot camp” was it gave Choyce an understanding that her mother was learning, too—and that children don’t come with instruction manuals. Hear the mother-daughter duo share their journey to mutual understanding in the third installment of the It Takes a Woman fireside chat with Tabitha and Choyce Brown, in our video above.

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