Robin Thicke has seen his share of scandal in the past year. Most recently, his split woes from Paula Patton have become the stuff of tabloid dreams. Robin has gone to great length to woo his wife back. It’s had to blame him, considering how long they’ve been together. Thicke met her when they were 14, started dating when they were 16, and were married almost nine years.

Robin’s dad is even more famous that his son. Alan Thicke played the dad, Jason Seaver, on ABC’s Growing Pains for seven seasons. Even though he is Canadian, he joins an exclusive list of what are considered all-American dads, which includes Ward Cleaver from Leave It to Beaver, Steve Douglas of My Three Sons, Heath Huxtable of the Cosby Show, and Al Bundy of Married With Children.

Caroline Presno interviewed Alan Thicke about his parenting views, and managed to get some words of wisdom from him for Robin.

“My advice to Robin is listen to your heart, do what you feel. Follow your heart in love and marriage as you would in careers and you’ll be fine. Robin has a great heart. He’s a fabulous father. He obviously followed his heart in creating and devoting an entire album to Paula and I believe you can’t go wrong that way.”

Alan Thicke’s parenting style is low-pressure but very close. He is very involved with them, but leaves their personal decisions to them.

“My kids would say [I’m] too laid-back, permissive and trusting. I was not strict at all and occasionally that bites you in the butt. But generally speaking, I’m pretty happy with my kids.”

“[M]y relationship with my sons is very close. I’m in touch with or engaged with at least one of them every single day. Worst case scenario it’s every third day for any one of those kids… I try not to micro-manage and have a bit of a don’t ask, don’t tell approach that relates to [younger son] Carter’s sex life at least… [W]e talk about respecting women and being faithful in relationships… no surprise pregnancies… and STD’s.”

Thicke is more concerned about protecting his kids’ privacy in this day of rampant social media and paparazzi stalking. He recognizes that his kids have “many more things to make decisions about and to censor themselves about.”

Image via YouTube