Originally appeared on E! Online
Tom Brady knows he didn't always score a touchdown in parenting.
And the former NFL star is not afraid to admit he didn't always do the best job while raising son Jack, 17, whom he shares with ex Bridget Moynahan, as well as son Benjamin, 14, and daughter Vivian, 11, who he coparents with ex-wife Gisele Bündchen.
"Being a parent is probably the hardest job all of us have," Brady admitted during the Fortune Global Forum in New York City Nov. 12. "And we screwed up a lot and I've screwed up a lot as a parent."
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The 47-year-old added that he didn't want to seem like "some expert in parenting," but when it comes to his children, he does whatever he can to try and "be dependable and consistent for them." For him, that also means supporting whatever choices they make in life.
According to Brady, his parenting style traces back to how his own parents, Galynn and Thomas Brady, acted toward him growing up, which he feels was a "blessing" for him.
"When I was that long shot as a kid, who was the backup quarterback on a freshman team," he recalled, "they never said, ‘Man, don't do that. It's gonna be too hard. Let's do something different. Let's think about another backup plan.' They kinda said, ‘You know what? Go for it. Whatever you wanna be, go for it.'"
And he's taken that same approach when it comes to son Jack, who Brady shared is already 6-foot-5 and has dreams of being a basketball player.
"Unfortunately he jumps as high as I do," Brady noted. "But I tell him, "Dude, you're gonna be a stud.' I said, ‘Wait till you hit your growth spurt, you're gonna be jumping higher, you're gonna be dunkin'.' And whether he does or not, who cares? But I want him to know that his dad's got his back."
Plus, the former New England Patriots quarterback is very aware that "to be a boy, it sucks to be Tom Brady's son, in so many ways." So he does what he can to empathize with both Jack and Benjamin.
"My kids naturally are gonna be faced with their own challenges, and they gotta figure out how to overcome them, too," he said. "And I'll be there to support them a lot like my parents did. And I'll be learning along the way right there with them."
