Though The Ellen DeGeneres Show executive producer insists “there’s no formula” to raising kids, we’d like to borrow a little of the chemistry he and wife Allison Holker have cooked up to guide daughters Weslie, 13, and Zaia, 19 months, and son Maddox, 5.
“There’s certain principles,” he recently told E! News of their approach, “which are open communication and making sure your kids feels heard and supported. And then we just take it from there.” Their brand of parenting involves a heaping helping of together time, a dash of all-family dance parties and a healthy sprinkling of honest, engaging conversations.
With Weslie in particular, he shared, ”We make sure that we try to typically stay away from the generic questions at the dinner table.” The standard “How was school today?” is always accompanied by follow-ups, he explained, “and then questions that spur conversation: ‘If you could own an apartment anywhere in the world and you could travel there at any time, where would it be and why?’ So then we get a peek into where she wants to travel to or where she thinks about living when she’s older.”