Professor Green thinks fatherhood is “magic”.
The 40-year-old rapper – whose real name is Stephen Manderson – has three-year-old son Slimane with Karima McAdams and he admitted being with his little boy has made him look at life in different ways.
Asked how fatherhood is, he told new! magazine: “Great. He’s always running around the house shouting, ‘I do not want to wear these pants!’
“Fatherhood’s magic – you see things in a more childlike way.
“I’d never stopped to examine a leaf for half an hour since I was a kid!”
Green believes it is very important to give his son the time and space to explore his feelings.
He said: “I try to give Slim a life different to the one I had – to understand what he’s feeling.”
“Feelings have been an issue for me my entire life. Especially as boys, parents still say, ‘Don’t cry!’. I say ‘Cry, don’t suppress that.’ He’s just doing what he needs to.
“It’s not easy – there are times when you are stressed, exhausted – but you try your best not to pass that down.”
However, the rapper is concerned young people today are lacking resilience.
He said: “There’s a lack of resilience today.
“People say, ‘Engage with your feelings, be sensitive.’
“Yes but that’s not how you survive everything.
“People say, ‘I wish my parents had been in therapy.’ If my nan had done that, there’d have been even less of a chance of me getting through life.
"She’d have fallen apart – that’s what you need to do, in therapy. She didn’t have that luxury. It was post-war and she had to raise three incredible children on her own – then me.
“Whinging doesn’t do you any good – and that’s coming from an ex-complainer.”
