• Seth Meyers said his kids think it’s funny when he “drops the hammer.”
• The father-of-three said he tried gentle parenting and got “no results.”
• Gentle parenting emphasizes communication over punishment.

Seth Meyers tried gentle parenting and found it didn’t work for him.

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday, the “Late Night” host said his children are not afraid of him.

Meyers, 50, said he was afraid of his father, who was a drop-the-hammer dad. But he said when he drops the hammer, his kids think it’s funny.

He recalled an incident where he was frustrated with his child, and they said, “Look, my dad’s about to lose it. It’s hilarious.”

“I think they know, they say, ‘It’s a different era,’” Meyers said, adding that his children “walk around like they have diplomatic immunity.”

Meyers has two sons, Ashe, 8, and Axel, 5, and a daughter, Addie, 2, with his wife Alexi Ashe.

When asked about his thoughts on gentle parenting, Meyers said, “I’m just not getting any results from my gentle parenting.” His kids love it, though, he said: “They would give it high marks.”

Once, his wife told his son that he had had a “strike,” he recalls. “I’m like, ‘Are you having a strike?’ He says, ‘Yeah, I think that’s strike five?'”

“They are good kids,” the comedian concluded. “I’m probably just not a great parent.”

A representative for Meyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

How to make gentle parenting work

Unlike the traditional approach to authoritarian parenting, in which parents punish a child for misbehavior, gentle parenting emphasizes empathy and understanding the child’s feelings.

As Chrissy Horton, a former preschool teacher, previously wrote for BI, gentle parenting “focuses more on the need or problem in which their behavior is rooted, rather than ignoring their perspective.”

The parenting style took off on TikTok last year, with parents sharing their method of correcting a child by communicating with them rationally rather than punishing or disciplining them. The hashtag #gentleparenting currently has 7.5 billion TikTok views.

The parenting style has received quite a bit of criticism. In July, Christine Carrig, who runs a preschool, wrote for BI that by following “scripts” for gentle parenting, parents can reduce their involvement with their children.

“I worry that some parents are buying into the idea that they can optimize the parent-child relationship by becoming less of their authentic self and more of an ‘ideal’ parent prescribed to them by an expert whose interaction style may differ greatly from the parents,” she wrote.

Hannah Nwoko, a millennial mother, previously told BI that gentle parenting made her feel like she was “stepping on eggshells.”

“The pressure to be the perfect, patient parent exhausted me,” Nwoko said.

Lauren Salles Gumpert, a speech therapist and mother, gave up gentle parenting after it exhausted her emotionally. “I want my daughters to see me as a whole person, and I don’t want to blame them for allowing myself to become their emotional (or physical) punching bag,” she wrote.

Others say there are ways to make gentle parenting work.

Mary Benedetti, a Toronto social worker and psychotherapist, said gentle parenting works when parents set ground rules about what is acceptable behavior. “Clear, friendly, but firm boundaries are needed,” she told BI.

Amber Adrian, a parent and former teacher, said she would set expectations for her students’ behavior at the beginning of the school year. She said while not all misconduct requires punishment, it should be addressed appropriately.

Ultimately, Adrian said building a strong relationship with your child is the most important thing.

“Good relationships can withstand the tension and conflict that arise when children do not meet expectations because there is a foundation of trust and unconditional love,” she wrote.