Families, like NBA squads, are all about teamwork.
Ask Sonya Adams Curry, whose son, Stephen, is a Golden State Warriors MVP.
“We only work as a family if everyone does their part,” the 52-year-old mother tells anchor Sheinelle Jones in the first episode of “Through Mom’s Eyes,” a new digital-exclusive series for TODAY.
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During a chat in the trophy-filled Curry home in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sonya shares down-to-earth insights about bringing up three successful kids — Steph, 30, his brother, Seth, 28, who plays for the Portland Trail Blazers, and sister Sydel, 24, who played volleyball in college.
Parenting is a juggling act for everybody. That includes Sonya, who ran a Christian Montessori School while she and husband Dell Curry, an ex-NBA player, raised their family.
She didn't overthink herself during those busy years of raising young children as a working mom. “I never really thought about what I was doing,” she says. “The kids went to school with me, all three of them. All my children were in some type of activity in the evening, and you just did it. You just woke up and you just got going.”
That said, there was a constant structure. “God first,” says Sonya. “Family second. And for them it was school next, and for Dell and myself, it was work.”
By her own admission, Sonya wasn’t the mom ever-ready with a Band-Aid and a hug. She was always strict. “I try to say I wasn't that bad,” she says, “but I was pretty bad.”
Exhibit A: Mom made Steph sit out a middle-school basketball game because he didn’t do his chores.
“It’s not my job to do everything for everybody,” says Sonya, in what could be a rallying cry for all mothers.
Exhibit B: Mom sent Steph a video advising him to wash his mouth out after he cursed during an NBA playoff game. “I just got hot,” says Sonya, adding that she sent the message as he came off he court.
Though she and her husband didn’t push a sports career, their sons’ interest bloomed early. “They were children who went to the games, sat, and watched....They watched games at home,” says Sonya. “They were students of the game.”
Watching her sons play pro ball is transporting. “Now every time I see them play against each other as adults,” she says, “it takes me back to them in the house, in the backyard, and then they're different personalities.”
She adds that “mommy mode kicks in” if any player gets rough with her sons. “That motherly instinct will never go away.”
What does Sonya Curry dream of these days? Easy. “Just more grandbabies. That's it,” she says. “That’s all I need.”