Mark Wahlberg holds his son on his shoulders in the June/July 2014 issue of Esquire magazine, on newsstands May 27.
Here’s what the 42-year-old Transformers 4 star had to share:
On parenting: “I think the most important thing is to always be involved in every aspect of their life. To give them enough trust that they can share things with you. I don’t want them to be terrified of me, you know? But I don’t want them to think they can do whatever they want and get away with it, either, because they can’t. The biggest thing for me is, you know, as quickly as I was able to turn it around, to get from there to here, from me having nothing as a kid to me here now, providing everything for my kids, it’s like, I worry that maybe they won’t appreciate things. I worry that maybe they’ll have a sense of entitlement. You don’t wanna give your kids everything without giving them the tools to be great people.”
On education and getting his high school diploma: “I can’t tell my kids to go to school and get an education if I don’t have a diploma. They’d start thinking, why do we need to go? You didn’t go and you turned out all right. But I’m proud to have it. If I want to go on and further my education and study film or whatever, I can do that.”
On his childhood: “I think, for the most part, I had a pretty good childhood. It wasn’t until we got older that we realized we didn’t have what a lot of other people had.”
Joining him for the shoot were his kiddos Brendan, Ella Rae, Michael, and Margaret.
For more from Mark, visit Esquire.com.
