Tom Hanks is getting candid about his parenting style compared to how he was raised by his “busy” parents.
The 68-year-old actor appeared on the latest episode of On Purpose with Jay Shetty, which aired on October 28, and talked about growing up with divorced parents, which led to his four children. He recalled what kind of influence he had on his upbringing.
“My parents were very focused on the good and the bad in their lives,” Hanks, the third of four children, told host Jay Shetty. “I like to joke that they were the pioneers of California’s dissolution of marriage law…My family background was in flux because we moved a lot, and my parents remarried.” And for other reasons, we suddenly ended up living with completely different people. By the time I was 7, I had lived in 8 different homes. They lived in different houses.”
Looking back on her tumultuous childhood, Shetty was asked if she tried to raise her children differently than her own parents.
“I tried to do that, and I made every mistake. You know, you cause some hurt to kids in exactly the same way,” Hanks said. “And as they grow up, you come back and (say), ‘Hey, can we talk about what I’ve been with you for years?’ And (they say), ‘ “Yes, of course, Dad.” Yes, I’ve been waiting for this for a while. Why don’t you take it down? ”
Hanks has a son, Colin Hanks, 46, and a daughter, Elizabeth Hanks, 42, with his first wife Samantha Lewis. He is also the father of two sons, Chet Hanks, 34, and Truman Hanks, 28, with his longtime wife Rita Wilson.
“But at the same time, I want to say… is it going to be 50-50?” he continued. “Maybe it’s the attitude and the life we lead. Laughter, that’s worth its weight in jewel-encrusted gold.”
Samantha Bryant, Colin Hanks, Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Ann Hanks, and Chet Hanks attended the 77th Golden Globe Awards Ceremony held in Beverly Hills on January 5, 2020. Truman Theodore Hanks. Fraser Harrison/Getty Images
When asked what his four children have taught him, Tom Hanks replied: They’re not the same type of people they were before. ”
The Oscar winner recalled an episode about his youngest son, Truman Hanks, and said it made him “feel better” about being a father.
“At one point my youngest said something that was definitely true for him, and I thought it actually applies to all of my kids, and it makes me feel good,” he said. I shared it. “He was younger. He was like 7 or 8 years old. I said, ‘Oh, at one point, let’s go down – we were in New York – to the park. Let’s take the gloves and throw it.” We hit the ball. Just find a spot on the grass. ‘And (he) said, ‘Okay, let’s do that.’ ”
“And that just kind of got away from me,” he said, adding that the time they spent together in the park “didn’t happen.”
“Something happened and I realized, oh, the sun is about to go down. And I said, ‘Oh my god.’ oh my god. Hey, I’m sorry. I said I was going to go down and throw the ball. It got away from me. Please forgive me,” Tom Hanks said. “And he said, ‘No, it’s fine, dude.'” And he looked disappointed. ”
Tom Hanks apologized, saying he was “in a bad mood” and said, “I didn’t want to bore you.” “And he looked at me with a different expression and said, “Dad, I’m never bored.” And it was… curiosity and drive and the freedom to explore whatever the world is. It speaks to the comfort of the place the person is in.”
For Tom Hanks, it was realizing that his children had “the ability to pursue their own interests without being prompted or forced.” I learned from that. ”
“They’ve never said they’re boring. They’ve always had some action, whether I understand their passion or not,” he said.
All three of the “Forrest Gump” star’s sons are following in their father’s footsteps as an actor, and Elizabeth Hanks is a writer.
Hanks has previously opened up about how his older children are growing up differently than Wilson’s sons.
“I started thinking about the mistakes I’d made with my children, the things I hadn’t explained, the things I hadn’t been there for, or other things going on in our adult world. I’m too focused on that,” he told The New York Times in 2019. “My son Colin was born when I was young, and so is my daughter, which means we have a Gestalt understanding, because their father, you know, Because they remember when I was just a guy trying to make some rent. And my other kids were born after I had established a beachhead in every way. Life was completely different.”
