Reba McEntire is starring in Big Sky: Deadly Trails. I guess it’s some kind of mystery series. Clearly I haven’t seen it but it looks good, I’m just surprised to see Reba not in a comedy. She has an interview in the latest People to promote it and she spoke about her son, racecar driver Shelby Blackstock. Shelby is Brandon Blackstock’s half-brother. Brandon is Kelly Clarkson’s ex, and he made Kelly’s life a living hell. Shelby’s dad is Narvel Blackstone, to whom Reba was married from 1989-2015. Narvel left Reba and moved on with one of her best friends. Despite all of this, Reba said that Shelby was raised not to be a jerk. She made a point to teach him that if he wanted to be liked, he couldn’t be a spoiled brat.
She’s an enduring legend of country music, but Reba McEntire doesn’t see her exalted status as a free pass for tardiness.
After calling in to her PEOPLE interview earlier this month a mere three minutes late, she apologizes not once, but twice, for running behind.
“Mama and Daddy always said to me, ‘If you tell somebody you’re going to be somewhere at a certain time, you show up,” she says in this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday. “That’s the way I was raised.”
When McEntire, 67, became a mom to her son Shelby (with ex-husband Narvel Blackstock) in 1990, she made sure to pass down those same values she learned growing up in Chockie, Oklahoma.
“When we would play games or cards, I’d never let Shelby win,” she says. “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.'”
Those words seem to have resonated with Shelby, 32, as “a lot of people have told me you would never know [he] had been blessed with the life he was given,” McEntire says.
“I’m very proud of him,” she says. “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.”
I did a quick Google search and have not found any stories to suggest Shelby is a gigantic, spoiled brat, so maybe the lessons sunk in. He just got married to social influencer Marissa Branch in a huge Disney wedding last February. But his parents are rich and famous and he’s a racecar driver and it was a wedding, people go all out for those. It’s nice that Reba has made such a concerted effort to stay friendly with Narvel in the press, especially since the divorce was so hard on her. Even in this interview she’s giving him credit for Shelby being a good guy. But since we know how Brandon turned out, I think Reba can take the credit for Shelby. Although she also gave a shout out to her nannies who helped raise Shelby while she was working on her career. I love when successful people admit they have help doing “it all.”
As for the Don’t Be a Jerk lesson, I wish they taught that in schools. I chuckled when Reba brought up not letting Shelby win at cards when he was a kid. Parents feel very strongly about whether you should let your kid win at games or not. Ask you parent friends if you have any. But be ready, there’s no gray area on that subject for most.
Photo credit: Instagram and Getty Images
I have a soft spot for her, ever since Tremors.
Matter of fact, I’m going to watch it today.
Let win at cards/games, or set up for success? Fact is, there is an age/experience gap as well as a power difference between parents & their kids.
Let win? That’s too easy a question.
Let kids experience success in a controlled setting so you can teach good sportsmanship & winning gracefully?
Absolutely & that’s exactly what we did.
ETA: don’t @ me about my parenting choices. You disagree, good on you & go raise your own.
Agree. Especially with sports where you have a great advantage. How do you teach a child a sport if you use your advantage to constantly win?
Yah same. We have lots of games of chance so my youngest has a fair shot at beating his brother.
For strategy games I sometimes win, but a lot of the time I talk through both of our choices and options during the game. My oldest (6) now genuinely beats me at connect4 90% of the time, it’s embarrassing.
I’m more of a don’t let the kid win, but sometimes you do.
I am a sped teacher and we do teach the dont be a jerk but….let’s just say I can tell who has jerks for parents. Also, our dog trainer told us that letting a puppy win at tug of war builds confidence but not to do it every time. The same is true for humans, let them win, sometimes, and teach how to be a good winner. But also give chances for them to experience defeat, and what to do when things don’t go your way.
Same. Except for out of five games of tic-tac-toe I won one against my five year old the other day. She had a freaking melt down. Looks like I’m going to have to win a few more here and there. Games are for fun and failure is a way to learn.
This is our way, too. Especially when they’re little and you’re playing a game because it’s rainy outside or (in a reference to our modern times) there is a freaking pandemic and you can’t let them play with their friends and they’re sad about it. Winning at Candy Land or Uno gave my sensitive younger child a boost she needed sometimes, and I’d do it again. Of course, she’s 10 now so we play according to the rules. And her 15 year-old brother NEVER got the memo on throwing the game (he’s the MarioKart champ, much to her chagrin!) so that worked out, too.
I’m all for “don’t be a jerk” lessons. There is nothing I will get onto my kids about harder or quicker than treating another person poorly. Fortunately, they are both kind and polite kids. Good manners, politeness, and empathy cost nothing and are great gifts for parents to teach and model.
We don’t let our kid win but we do sometimes teach him strategy that probably gives him a better chance of winning at that moment so he learns that skill (openly and in games against us, not friends). Game mentoring I guess? After that, he’s on his own. We also talk a lot about not being a jerk and being a gracious winner and loser…basic life skill.
Ex Mr Truthiness will never give up his competitive edge against anyone even if there’s a greater good. Once our son starts beating him at one game he won’t play it. So our son employs chess engines to f*** with him and I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty amusing.
I like Reba. Boy, that Ex of hers must have missed the don’t be a jerk lesson, tho.
In our home, the watch phrase was “Don’t be a douche.” Mum even had a little song
I’m gonna need the lyrics to said song, please 🙂
I have a soft spot for Reba, but how you get em is how you lose em. Norville was married when they got together. So it’s a bit of Karma.
I don’t let my kids win at games, never have. Sometimes they genuinely beat me, sometimes they don’t. But I don’t let them win. My 8 year old beats me at Tic Tac Toe regularly, LOL.
I honestly find that with younger games, you can really tell how the games are wired for kids brains bc there are games that aren’t “hard” for me per se, but my kids’ brains process the game differently and they can beat me, which is fine. I like when they beat me, it gives me a chance to model losing gracefully, and when I win also model winning gracefully.
A favorite family story in my family is when we were little, my older brother once said to my mom, “you know mom, some moms let the kids win sometimes.” She was like “whatever, I beat you.” It’s funny to me bc he’s super competitive now, but his wife is INSANELY competitive, especially when it comes to board games, and I don’t think she has ever let her daughters beat her once, LOLOL. We joke about playing games with her bc she gets so intense haha.
I remember playing checkers with my niece when she was little. I won usually, sometimes she did. And I remember my mom telling me I was supposed to let her win from time to time. Let her win, I said? What do you mean, let her win? And my mom told me she let me win at checkers when I was little. And I swear, my memories of childhood were that I was such a whiz at playing checkers! Especially when I was sick with measles & quarantined from the rest of the family, my mom played checkers with me & read to me. And she was letting me win!
I’m really loving this season of Big Sky. She and Jensen Ackles are bringing it and just might save this show! I’d almost given up on it bc its writing was ridiculous and all over the place and didn’t see her really doing much. Having her play a questionable character was brilliant! And I’ll always love Jensen! He’s my favorite Winchester!
I recall many years ago reading Reba took up with him while he was still with his wife ( not separated or split up) so maybe she knows now that’s who he is.
Good on her for being gracious now.
I love Reba and glad her son seems like a decent person. 90s country was so good and Reba was such a star to me growing up. I think that series is shot in the area I live and a make up artist I know posted her doing Reba’s make up and said she was the nicest, down to earth person you could work with so that’s a good endorsement in my opinion.
When my son was a toddler I would let him win sometimes but not now that he’s almost a teenager.
I never let my son win, especially went hard with basketball by the time he was 8 he could play grown men. Teaching him sports and games were not one-sided for long but he would dust me in video games.
Oh, Big Sky is good. All seasons so far.
She’s a Republican and Trump supporter.