Ryan Reynolds Says Parents Today Are ‘Soft’

Ryan Reynolds is looking back on how much parenting has changed since he was a child, calling moms and dads today “soft” compared with previous generations.

During HubSpot’s Inbound tech conference in Boston on Friday, the “Deadpool” actor explained how the way he approached his emotions shifted ever since he took a workshop on conflict resolution.

“That changed my entire life,” he said, according to People magazine. “I just didn’t know how to process things that I felt.”

Noting how he grew up with a “scarcity mindset” when it came to his feelings, Reynolds added, “I didn’t know how to unfold that thing in your brain that conditions you just always to win or be right.”

The star, who has four children with actor Blake Lively, added how he loved the way the workshop helped him learn “you can meet somebody where they are, and you don’t have to be right or wrong.”

“You can disagree and still connect,” he added.

During the conference, Reynolds also contrasted today’s parenting strategies with how he was raised.

“I have four kids and, so far, none of them seem to have that partly because they were born on ‘Easy Street,’” he said with a smile.

“Parents today are so different. We’re so soft,” the “If” actor continued. “I don’t yell. I grew up with like — it was nuts, it was an improvised militia.”

“Now it’s like, I can go look at all my resources for parenting and remind myself how to be perfectly compassionate,” he noted.