Erykah Badu talks about being a single parent

Erykah Badu sat down recently with the  telegraph.co.uk
She talked about a lot of things during the interview, she opened up about her realtionship
and her being a single mother of 3 kids.
Her oldset child is her son Seven,13 (dad is rapper Andre 3000); daughter Puma,5 (dad is rapper D.O.C)
and her youngest daughter Mars,age 1 (dad is musician Jay Electronica)

Is it tough to raise the children alone? Does she wish the fathers were around?

“The fathers are present a lot,” she says. “No one chooses to raise children alone. When you’re in a relationship you want it to work. My parents did, I did. But we are not taught how to make it work. We don’t know how to perform in relationships. I did maths, science, English but we weren’t taught about human interaction, about relations with the opposite sex.” Is she suggesting schools give boyfriend lessons? “No, compassion lessons,” she says.

Badu’s own father left home when she was a child, and she, her brother and sister were raised by her two grandmothers and her mother:
I come from a long line of strong matriarchs,” she says, adding, “I live in a queendom, ruled by a womb-iverse,” which baffles me momentarily. The strong female figures are still close at hand….
“My maternal grandmother’s advice is: ‘Keep living it’ll come to ya.’
My paternal grandmother says: ‘Just let God do it’,
I’m a woman who has gone through many heartaches, enough to dedicate my whole life
to trying to figure them out Being honest is my job, that’s what music is for me.”

Badu still lives in the south Dallas neighbourhood where she was raised.Here she makes her music, grows a bit of marjoram in the garden, and invests a lot of her money in the Beautiful Love Incorporated Non-profit Development fund, which provides theatres and academies for local children.

With all those rap-star lovers,
did  infidelity caused her heartaches?

“No. Infidelity is not a deal-breaker for me. We’re all born sexual beings. I myself am not someone with a very high libido. I don’t require sex for happiness – I need companionship. I need a partner I can depend on, that I can love and grow with. But I do understand the nature of these men I’ve been with, and men in general. They have a need to chase.

Do you tolerate it?

“In my own kind of way. I’m having to recondition my brain, ’cos the first thing I got was a doll named Barbie and she had Ken and that’s how it was supposed to be. You’re conditioned to think that way, and when it doesn’t happen you feel you’re a failure. What we have in common, me and the brothers I’ve known, is that we are all trying to evolve.
“We talk a lot about things that men want. Because I want them to be happy and the more I see how the male of the species behaves, the more I understand, and the less I blame him. It’s just who he is. Is there a solution?” She smiles for the first time in 45 minutes. “Honesty is it. It will get you everywhere. Mind you, I have friends who are in polygamous relationships they’re no more happy or sad than we are. But at least the bitches know what’s comin’ next!”