Will Smith changed his parenting when daughter Willow made him understand he wasn’t considering others’ sentiments.

The actor, 53, has three children: boys Trey, 29, and Jaden, 23, and Willow, who had hits with “WҺip My Hair” in 2010. At “Will Smith: An Evening of Stories with Friends” at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, Smith discussed how he handled her climb to fаme, which began when she was 9 and included touring with Justin Bieber at 10.

“I was like, ‘I am parenting the s— out of these kids,'” Smith laughed about his kids’ early job achievements. “I felt like I was doing really, really well.”

Her Dublin tour performance ended with, “Thank you, Daddy. I’m finished.” When Smith told Willow, 10, to keep performing, she remarked, “It doesn’t matter to you that I’m done, Daddy?”

Willow appeared for breakfast having “shaved her entire head bald,” shоcking Smith, who understood his child’s feelings.

“I’m looking and saying, ‘Got it. Got it, baby. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You can stop,” he said, “It was scary. Willow grabbed me as I stepped out into the street in front of a bus, appearing like I was texting. I discovered feelings then, strangely. Because of my upbringing, I didn’t care how I felt, thus I didn’t care how others felt. In my childhood home, feelings didn’t count. You obeyed orders. She made me think about her question. She asked ‘Daddy, does it matter to you how I feel?’ It explоded in my head. That was an existential question.”

“My parenting style changed in that moment,” he said.

Smith, who had always wаnted to be a dad since he was 5, described parenting as “pushing and prodding and cajoling people into the vision that I had, demanding that people do the things that I had envisioned for them.”

However, “After that moment, I realized a seed is already a thing—God designed it. It’s not my job to demand it satisfy my ego. I must hydrate, nourish, and connect myself with that seed rather than pushing and prodding it.

King Richard actor: “That was a major transition for me in my life.” “I feel like Willow saved me from what could have been tragic in my life.”

Willow, now 21, said mom Jada Pinkett-Smith on Red Table Talk in 2018: “I had to forgive you and Daddy for that entire ‘WҺip My Hair’ thing. Since Daddy was tough, it was largely him.”

A few of years, honestly. “Trying to regain trust for not feeling heard or cared about,” she said, “And I had to forgive myself because I felt bad because everyone is trying to make me better, to make my goal. My dream wasn’t clear to me.”