'They need to be tough!' Why Kerry Katona expects her children to deal with trolling themselves
Kerry Katona expects her children to deal with online trolling themselves so they can be prepared to deal with real world.
Kerry Katona expects her children to deal with online trolling themselves.
The 42-year-old star - who was initially married to Westlife singer Brian McFadden from 2002 until 2006 and has Molly, 21, and 20-year-old Lilly-Sue with him but went on to have Heidi, 16, and Max, 15, with second husband Mark Croft and also has nine-year-old daughter DJ with the late George Kay - has given her children public profiles online and wants them to understand how to take responsibility for themselves.
Speaking on UK TV show 'Good Morning Britain', she said: "I do think a lot of it is all about your own guidance and how you teach your children about consequences and responsibility, so for me, being who I am, I've made my children have a public account. I've let them know what the real world is all about so if they get trolled they have to deal with it because I want my children to understand that social media is not going anywhere. If anything, it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
"If my kids, like my Heidi, she has got her GCSE exams at the minute, she knows that she has to come off social media by herself and do her revision. And she's doing amazing. In her mocks, she got six As. I'm not policing her on what she's doing, she knows right from wrong. She's an adult now so when she leaves home, she needs to know what to do in life for herself. I'm not always going to be there.
"My nine-year-old got a certificate from school talking about responsibilities and how great she's doing. She got star of the day and she's on social media. I haven't got the time either to be going 'Get off this', I'm there to teach them and they've got to do it by themselves."
The former Atomic Kitten singer - who is now engaged to fitness instructor Ryan Mahoney - went on to add that she wants her kids to know what the "real world" is all about and believes it is "really important" for them to be prepared for the harsh realities of real life.
She added:"It's just been the same for all of them. I want my kids to know what the real world is all about. It's not full of rainbows, it's not full of unicorns. It can be amazing but I want them to understand that there are horrible people out there and I want them to be toughened by it and have thick skin. They know there's consequences, so teaching them that, I think is really important."
