Reba McEntire On How She Kept Her Race Car Driver Son Humble – ‘Don’t Be A Spoiled Brat’

Reba McEntire has been a famous country music star for decades, but when it came to raising son Shelby, she was determined that he grow up humble. Now, McEntire is opening up about how she raised her son, who is a professional race car driver, to not be “a spoiled brat.”

‘Don’t Be A Spoiled Brat’

McEntire, 67, shares Shelby, 32, with her ex-husband Narvel Blackstock, and by the time he was born, she was already a big star. Despite her celebrity status, McEntire was determined that Shelby grow up with the same values that she had in her modest childhood in the small town of Chockie, Oklahoma.

“When we would play games or cards, I’d never let Shelby win,” she told People Magazine. “He wouldn’t have learned anything that way. I always told Shelby, ‘I’ll always love you, but I want other people to like you. So don’t be a little jerk. Don’t be a spoiled brat.'”

McEntire believes that this parenting style was effective, as “a lot of people have told me you would never know [he] had been blessed with the life he was given.”

“I’m very proud of him,” she continued. “He was a kid who had ADHD and could barely read in school, and now he’s read 10 books this year. He’s always trying to improve and do better. His daddy did a great job too.”

Related: Reba McEntire Gushes Over ‘CSI’ Star Boyfriend – ‘Waited 66 Years For A Man To Pray With’

‘Shelby Is A Gift From God To Me’

McEntire went on to talk about the strong bond that she has with Shelby. 

“Shelby is a gift from God to me,” she explained. “We’re very close. I was a very self-centered person to a degree before Shelby. But then there’s a little character who you are given the job to protect and nurture and love and teach, so all the attention’s not on you anymore.”

McEntire also admits that she can’t take all the credit for how Shelby turned out because she had “a lot of help.”

“I had the best nannies, and I took him on the road with me,” she said. “When I couldn’t, I would flyhome after a concert, get him up in the morning, take him to school and pick him up. We’d play until I had to fly out again for a concert that night. I wanted to be with Shelby. Still do.”

Shelby married his wife Marissa earlier this year, eight years after they met on the dating app Tinder, in a fairytale wedding at Disney World, according to Today. They currently live in Nashville, Tennessee, which McEntire also calls home. 

“Shelby and Marissa are very busy with their jobs, but when I do get to go home to Nashville, we have brunch or a dinner and see them,” McEntire said. 

McEntire’s Divorce 

McEntire got divorced from Shelby’s father Narvel in 2015 after 26 years of marriage, and she’s been open about how difficult this experience was for her. 

“The divorce was not my idea. I didn’t want it in any shape, form or fashion. So it was really hard to make the adjustment,” she told CMT in 2016. “When someone’s not happy, I just want everybody to be happy in their lives because our lives are too short to be miserable, so I just thought it was the best thing to take my marbles, go play somewhere else.”

Related: Reba McEntire Finds Love Again After Painful Divorce

McEntire leaned on her strong Christian faith to get her through this tough period in her life.

“I prayed every day to help me have the strength to move one foot in front of the other and to continue on with what I’m supposed to be doing and why He put me on this Earth in the first place,” she said. 

Find out more about this in the video below. 

Thankfully, McEntire has since moved on and found love again with her boyfriend Rex Linn, an actor who she has been dating for the past two years. He’s lucky to have someone like her as a girlfriend, and Shelby is lucky to have someone like her as a mom!