Queer Eye's Karamo Brown on Discovering He Had a 10-Year-Old Son | We Are Family | Parents

just for me saying I'm gonna give up my life was a heart it was like I want this I love you know this being but like it's it's no longer just about me so that when I really met my son I was able to say oh you know what I'm ready to share my world with you I'm ready to give you everything you need so I met my son's mother Stephanie when we were 15 years old we were freshman in high school and she was my best friend her last name was Brooks my last name was brown so we actually sat next to each other and we became best friends quickly neither of us came from the best home environments at that time and we found comfort in being able to share our pain with each other and lost our virginity to each other and just like you know kids we don't know when our parents decide to make us move and so she moved and I moved and that was the end of our contact you after coming home from an event from the real world I was presented with a stack of papers for back child support for my son and if you can imagine being 20 you know 6 at the time I'm still I get kind of flustered because I was like what do you do now what what's what's gonna happen here what then I saw my son's name and it was mind-blowing to me again Here I am in my 20s selfish you know everything I'm doing is for me I'm partying all the time and now I'm presented with the fact that I have to be a father and how do you process and deal with that information I was a super anxious about ten eleven or so and I just remember talking to my brothers and sisters literally being like I don't know if I should do this like I'm like really scared I don't know if I should tell mom literally to tell him to just turn her when I go back to her he came from but uh when I actually like literally met him and hugged him it was so cool it felt like literally like I was missing something like that for a long time I remember the first time he and I ever fully hung out he was showing me photos from when he was like three and five and I don't even know if he's ever heard this but I you know it broke my heart to be watching these photos and looking at these things and knowing like I don't I don't know these moments you know I don't know what it was like when you said your first word I don't know what it was like when you took your first step and that's heartbreaking for me as a father because I want those memories but what always makes me feel better and you know gives me some sense of joy is that he did have a loving mother that was with him that was there to express those be there for those moments and you know I got to experience so many mother moments you know I got to experience teeth coming out I got to experience first dates and dances and so many other amazing moments and still to this day so you know I'm appreciative of the moments I have but sometimes I do miss out on the think about the moments that I missed out on you as I was bringing Jason into my life his younger brother was very close to the family was always with us eventually a situation happened where he needed to be placed in our house for in my home for a little bit and it was only supposed to be a temporary replacement but he started to flourish and he started doing well around me and his brother and you know she and I had another conversation and said listen Jason is doing well Christian is doing well how about they both come and stay with me and I'll be his legal guardian and we make this work and again being one of the most supportive and loving women I've ever met in my life said yes if there's an opportunity you can give my children that I can't give them why am i gonna hold that back just make sure that we're still a family and you know he moved in and years later here we are me raising two boys and you know we're still a great family he's amazing he's very hands-on he's always like if we need help with this thing he has his plan do say as we helped meet it he's like pretty much like I can go to him he's my go-to guy like if I need help with anything or I have any concerns about thing anything that's in life are if I just need to talk I could just go to my father and just be like hey we could have this honest conversation about what's going on and then he'll just talk to me and give me some advice and be loving and supporting if I have if you have to if you have to okay so the color how can you go this on your own terms but listen is what I'm trying to explain it okay no I know what you're doing you're not who told you that you go first you went first you put green down no all right when it comes to parenting parenting comes in all different shapes and sizes and for me it was taking in children who were older and that's something that happens to a lot of people growing up in my neighborhood there were so many people who took in older kids adopted them fostered them and I had some point of reference of what that would be like the and also with my background being in Social Work I knew that it was not to forcefully so let it grow organically Oh my sons and I laugh a lot we watch a lot of TV we play a lot of music music it's always playing in this house consistently we go out to eat a lot and we just try to spend as much time together the kids play a lot of sports they play basketball I try to and they beat me cuz I suck you know my family looks different people see that all of us and they think we're brothers and they're like oh look at these brothers we're your parents and I'm like no I'm dad and then my partner walks up who's 10 years my senior and you know is white with gray hair and they're like who's that you know and it works and then my son's mother walks up and we're all together and they're like what's going on here but it works because we're a family and at the end of the day we love each other and we support each other when I think about what makes a modern family today its first of all love because it doesn't matter if you're you know the children are biologically yours it doesn't matter if the parent is a stepparent or if it's there your grandma your grandpa or if there are different races sexual orientations gender identities and what I've learned especially being on queer I talking to all these families is we all want the same thing we just want our children to wake up and feel like it's okay to smile there's no reason for any of us to want to discriminate or hate against someone else because at the end of the day we all just want the same thing a happy healthy life and family and I think you know people should start to try to open their minds up more to the fact that families look different and that's okay you

Channel: Parents

Views: 1,441,586

Keywords: Karamo Brown, bio, story, sons, kids, dad, we are family, queer, eye, fatherhood, netflix, facebook, watch, parents, parents magazine, parents.com, home, tips, family

Id: uxPYfliQZDU

Length: 8min 30sec (510 seconds)

Published: Tue May 15 2018