DAVID D2 DAVIS prides himself on two of his strongest characteristics: creativity and individuality.
There are very few things that he has ventured into as commercial enterprises. And if you talked to him a few days later, he assured, there will be a couple more ideas for him to discuss.
Therefore, it stands to reason that his meticulous attention to being your best, most authentic self would be the cornerstone of his parenting style.
That is exactly the approach this entrepreneurial-driven business man, creative and soca singer has taken with Summa and Autumn — the two daughters he shares with his “magnificent” wife of nearly 20 years, Christine Hinds-Davis.
“. . .They say the hardest thing is to live as an individual when everyone is trying to make you like everyone else. That is something I have been pushing to each of my children. Now that they are getting older it causes friction, but we need to understand that we are not raising robots.
“[Children] have their own ideas. We just have to see how their ideas mesh with us and the world around them, so they don’t go too far south,” he asserted in a Sunday afternoon interview with Easy in their colourful, ornate Christ Church home.
“I am a creative being; I don’t think in normal patterns,” the 42-year-old father said. “. . . My wife has a nail salon (Summa Nails) and Summa works with her mother and also sings calypso. Autumn knows that the world is her playground and whatever she wants to do, mummy and daddy will support her. Make your thumbprint.
“After I leave this earth, I want people to remember that I have lived, and I did it my way. [So] from early, both of them had a voice. [Therefore], yes you are my child, but if I tell you to do something, you can answer me back. I [may] tell you do something, but it may not be the right time for you and we can talk it out. It is harder when they get older, because I know for a fact there are some things they want to do that we do not want to support, but we . . . thrash it out. But I still know when to put down my foot and be firm.”
The Davises have also chosen to spare the rod, instead choosing to speak to them sternly as needed. Some may see David and Christine’s method of parenting as balancing a tenuous line between disobedience and individuality. However, the father believed that he was equipping his daughters with the requisite skills to stand proudly on their own feet.
“There are times looking back where it would have caused some conflict at school. We had to go the school once or twice for Summa speaking out, and the same with Autumn. Even at that level, we had to go in and discuss . . . why my child took the course [of action] they took. It is not that this child is doing this thing in isolation; their parents are the same.
“I could stand up in any forum where my daughters would have gone against the grain and represent them because . . . the anatomy of the situation will dictate whether they were right or wrong. If they were wrong, and that comes with the territory too, they should be penalised, but at least they stood up for themselves. When you stand up for yourself, you would be wrong sometimes, but you cannot let that fear stop you. If you believe in something, follow it through.”
David himself has followed through on several business ventures, including a bar, a T-shirt company and Renaissance Designs Inc, a 15-year-old event specialists company. He is also a director on the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers board, and was the creative mind behind the Full Hundred 246 Music View, which airs on select Starcom stations.
Soca became a part of David’s hectic roster ten years ago, both as a singer and songwriter. David became interested due to the fact that his wife was a backup singer for the Untouchables and later Celebration Time. He also used to design sets and stages, and possibly caught the soca fever while setting up for shows. Reloaded as D2.5 this year, he released Anxious And Addicted. Summa, now 20, joined the soca fray at 16.
“She is having difficulties, because people tend to ‘play names’. Her music usually comes out on Blood’s CD. The deejay would get that CD and play the most popular names on the CD . . . and when he has his set, those are the songs he would rotate. She has her best song this year [Moment For Life] but it suffers from rotation. I used to write for her initially, but it was a challenge because I had to use choice words and themes ’cause I didn’t want her to do the ‘wuk up thing’ . . . but now she is working with Livia [Dottin].”
Fifteen-year-old Autumn was initially interested in modelling, but has been expressing interest in working with her father as of late.
“Autumn has the ability that she could put her foot down,” he said of his second daughter, “I am more easy-going and sometimes that can be taken that for granted.”
The Ursuline Convent student in turn described her father as a “positive man” who was always supportive. Summa too recalled a time in her life when that support saved her in a very dark period of her life.
“There was a time when I was not happy with my appearance. I was writing in this diary I had that I didn’t like myself and that wanted to kill myself. My father came [upon] this diary – I don’t know how, probably just going through my room — and he took me outside with a shovel. He buried that diary and told me that I was a beautiful girl,” she recalled as her father looked on with a proud smile.
