Jada Pinkett Smith has opened up about her complicated relationship with setting boundaries and how it’s negatively impacted her relationships.
On the newest episode of Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk, the actress explained that she struggles with setting limits because she worries how it will make the other person feel.
“I have a difficult time setting boundaries with it all, whether it’s work, family, kids, friends,” Smith admitted. “With me, I get angry if you make me set a boundary. I get angry at you. Isn’t that crazy? So, now you’re putting me in a position that I gotta tell you to, ‘Give me 50 feet.'”
While not touching upon her marriage to husband Will Smith or her professional relationships, the Girls Trip star revealed that her issue with setting boundaries affected her on a personal level, saying, “I definitely realized that it is a huge weakness of mine and has definitely played into a lot of relationship issues.”
She declined to elaborate why and, instead, opened a conversation about why asserting yourself is necessary part of life — even it if is one of her least-favorite moments because she likes to make others “feel better.”
Pinkett Smith, 50, elaborated by explaining that, when she sets boundaries, “You really start to see who’s a real friend and who’s not.”
“People feel really entitled, you know?,” she continued. “People that are close to you. I’ve done the same, where you feel entitled to people, their things. I’ve had to check myself on both sides of that coin.”
Pinkett Smith also shared how she’s embraced the boundaries set by her daughter, Willow.
“She’ll call me disrupted, and be like, ‘I don’t need you to fix anything, Mom. I just want you to listen,'” Jada remarked, and praised her daughter’s straightforwardness.
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
