Parental Guidance’s Influencer parents Jonathan and Kat are not like most parents, they are cool parents (IYKYK) but in a hugely responsible way.

The couple, who are currently appearing in the second season of the hit show with their daughters Latisha “Tisha” and Deja, has a “pretty unique parenting” style, which sees them be a lot more “lax” about screen time and social media.

“We were interested in showing our perspective on how we make that work within our family dynamic,” Jonathan told Chattr during an interview about their involvement in the show.

Adding that “no one really speaks about” social media as a way to raise kids, they thought it was important to bring their knowledge about something that’s way more important “than parents have an idea of”.

“Kids these days growing up, they grow up with iPads and screens. For them, it’s just another extension of their arm,” he said.

“For us to really close our eyes and think that it’s not important, it’s really dangerous because the internet and social media open up a whole new realm of not only opportunities, but the dangers out there are exponential as well.”

Jonathan believes that as parents if you don’t get your head around the possibilities of what can happen to your children and are not “savvy and educated enough”, it can cause some “really big issues”.

“You may not need not even have a clue that those issues are happening or what’s going on if you don’t have your finger on that pulse.”

How Kat and Jonathan educate their own kids about social media

Since filming was over a year ago, Latisha is now 20 and Deja is almost 13 and both have had their own social accounts for years. While some people would be quick to judge this, both Kat and Jonathan have always been very hands-on, particularly when it comes to their youngest daughter.

“We have a really close relationship with our kids,” Kat said during the same interview. “I’ve got access to her [Deja] Instagram account, and I’m reading her DMs and all that sort of stuff.

“If there is something that worries me, that will bring up a conversation that we’ll have. It’s not like we sit there on a Monday night and have a lesson on social media. Things come up and that’s when we’ll address it.”

How the Influencer Parents handle online trolls

Unfortunately, while they have a great community of followers, there are a few people that take it upon themselves to troll the family.

“We get a lot of hate and we get a lot of people trolling us,” Jonathan admitted. “So we’re really trying to lead by example in the way that we react to things that come up out from our profiles. Then she [Deja] sees that and has an idea of well, it really doesn’t matter and it’s not hurting my parents and they’re not sitting in the corner crying in a foetal position over a comment, so that really helps as well.”

According to Kat, online trolls target anything from the way they look to what they’re wearing.

“People have asked me how far along I am as if I’m gaining weight and if I’m pregnant,” she said. “They’re trying to insult you and it’s just got to be water off a duck’s back.”

Jonathan has also taught his children that if someone has “enough sadness in their heart” and has taken the time to go onto someone’s page, post and actually write a negative comment, then empathy must be used.

“That person must either be going through something really bad in their life, or they have gone through something bad in life, or they’re in a really bad place,” he said.

How Jonathan and Kat’s parenting style came about

Both Jonathan and Kat grew up in very strict households and according to Jonathan, all it did was turn him into “a good liar” when he was a teenager.

“That was a real conscious thing,” he said of their parenting style. “It made me be my own parent when it came to things where I needed guidance and I knew I couldn’t go [to my parents] because I would have gotten into trouble or I would get grounded. And Kat was the same. We just didn’t want that for our kids.

“We wanted them to have the freedom to make mistakes to do things that they are going to do and at the same time, come to us for advice.”

In fact, he believes that some of the most important times of your life as a child are when you need guidance, “when you’ve done something that you probably shouldn’t have done.”

“The last thing you need is to be scolded and to be put into a corner because you’ve done something that you already feel bad enough about yourself,” he said. “You don’t need to be scolded and punished even further.”

What Kat and Jonathan say about the other Parental Guidance parents

While all different in their approach, both Kat and Jonathan agree that all of the other Parental Guidance cast are “amazing parents”.

“We might not agree with how they parent their kids, but at the end of the day, we all have the same goal, and that is to bring up happy, healthy children,” Kat said. “And I think that’s kind of where we come from…. There’s not one group of parents on that panel who has is wanting to do any harm to their children.”

Parental Guidance airs Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm on 9 and 9Now.

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