An olympian family:
against all odds (part One)
february 2025 | interview By: lorna valcin | Photo by Valcin Legacy, inc.
The Grand'Pierre family have achieved remarkable milestones. Three out of five of their children represented Haiti in swimming at consecutive Summer Olympic Games. Naomy Grand'Pierre made history as Haiti's first female Olympic swimmer at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Naomy's groundbreaking participation in the women's 50m freestyle paved the way for her siblings. Her sister, Emilie Grand'Pierre, continued the legacy by competing in the 100m breaststroke in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Their brother, Alexandre Grand'Pierre, upheld the family's tradition by competing in the 100m breaststroke event in the 2024 Paris Olympics. His succession underscores the family's dedication to swimming and their commitment to representing Haiti on the world stage.
The Grand'Pierre siblings' achievements highlight their significant contributions to the Haitian Olympic Swim Team and their role in inspiring future generations of athletes. None of this would have been possible without the support of their parents, Clio and Reginald Grand'Pierre.
As we celebrate the accomplishments of their children, we must also celebrate the parents who made tremendous sacrifices and worked tirelessly behind the scenes. Yes, there were challenges, setbacks, and struggles. By no means was it an overnight success for the family.
How did they achieve success against all odds? In this story, we will look at what it took to produce outstanding leaders who proved that
"Black People Can Swim" challenging the status quo. The Grand'Pierre's created a space for Haiti in the Olympic swimming competition where there was none. (Scientifically speaking. it's considered impossible to create something from nothing.) However, Clio and Reginald Grand'Pierre inspired their children to jump in the water in the face of fear creating new opportunities for themselves and others.
Lakol: Where did you two meet?
Clio: Montreal, Canada.
Lakol: Was it love at first sight?
Clio: Well, pretty much. From the day that we met, we were like old friends.
Lakol: How long did you date before you actually got engaged or got married?
Clio: We met in October of 1993. We were engaged in October of 1994. We basically had two weddings:
The first was a civil wedding in Canada, April 1995. The 2nd was held in a church in Haiti, July 1995.
Lakol: Was the 2nd ceremony for your family?
Clio: Yes. We also wanted a religious wedding.
Lakol: You have five children. Is that something that you both planned on having?
Clio: No, I actually wanted a boy but we kept having girls. (Naomy. Audrée, Emilie) After 3 girls, we agreed to go for number four. That’s how Alexandre came along. And then Raphael was our little surprise. And after number 5, Reggie said that, "There will be no more surprises!' So, he permanently closed the shop.
Lakol: Wow! (laughter)
Reginald: I always gravitated towards having a large family. I saw the advantage of kids working together with their parents. That was my motivation. Our exposure to other families led to great experiences with their kids. Because we're a very fertile couple, we had a large family. Clio was not raised to be a stay at home mom. So it was definitely a challenge for her to fulfill the obligations of being a business woman, wife, and mother. She didn't want a big family. When I met Clio, she was a typical college educated smart woman with a Type A personality.
Clio: If you would have asked my college friends who's going to be home with five kids, I would have been the last one on the list. I didn't see much value in what it takes to raise a family. I valued having a career over a family. If we had not started a business together and only worked in a corporate office; we would have definitely been divorced today. (laughter)
Reginald: That's 100% true because there's no way that Clio would have tolerated me being an absent father because of work life. That's just a reality! Clio is smart and articulate. Her vision was to be a Corporate Executive … not a stay-at-home-mom.
We arranged our schedules so that both of us would be home around 3PM to take care of the kids. If we had left it to just one person, there's no way our marriage could have survived.
Lakol: What has been your greatest joy and your greatest challenge in raising the five children?
Clio: Raising five children in North America can be very hard … especially, if you want to do a good job, if you want to be involved, and also be there for the kids. When the kids were growing up, the thing that they remember me saying over and over again, “Oh dear Lord, God give me strength!" (laughter)
It was hard. I didn’t grow up in the U.S. I grew up in Haiti. Most of the time, as kids, you were not raised to do chores because you have people who cook and people who clean. So when I came to America, I didn't know how to run a household. I went from being a corporate woman in Canada to being a full-time mom in the United States. To keep my sanity, I had to run my household like an office. I had to have structure! (laughter)
The Grand'Pierre siblings' achievements highlight their significant contributions to the Haitian Olympic Swim Team and their role in inspiring future generations of athletes. None of this would have been possible without the support of their parents, Clio and Reginald Grand'Pierre.
As we celebrate the accomplishments of their children, we must also celebrate the parents who made tremendous sacrifices and worked tirelessly behind the scenes. Yes, there were challenges, setbacks, and struggles. By no means was it an overnight success for the family.
How did they achieve success against all odds? In this story, we will look at what it took to produce outstanding leaders who proved that
"Black People Can Swim" challenging the status quo. The Grand'Pierre's created a space for Haiti in the Olympic swimming competition where there was none. (Scientifically speaking. it's considered impossible to create something from nothing.) However, Clio and Reginald Grand'Pierre inspired their children to jump in the water in the face of fear creating new opportunities for themselves and others.
Lakol: Where did you two meet?
Clio: Montreal, Canada.
Lakol: Was it love at first sight?
Clio: Well, pretty much. From the day that we met, we were like old friends.
Lakol: How long did you date before you actually got engaged or got married?
Clio: We met in October of 1993. We were engaged in October of 1994. We basically had two weddings:
The first was a civil wedding in Canada, April 1995. The 2nd was held in a church in Haiti, July 1995.
Lakol: Was the 2nd ceremony for your family?
Clio: Yes. We also wanted a religious wedding.
Lakol: You have five children. Is that something that you both planned on having?
Clio: No, I actually wanted a boy but we kept having girls. (Naomy. Audrée, Emilie) After 3 girls, we agreed to go for number four. That’s how Alexandre came along. And then Raphael was our little surprise. And after number 5, Reggie said that, "There will be no more surprises!' So, he permanently closed the shop.
Lakol: Wow! (laughter)
Reginald: I always gravitated towards having a large family. I saw the advantage of kids working together with their parents. That was my motivation. Our exposure to other families led to great experiences with their kids. Because we're a very fertile couple, we had a large family. Clio was not raised to be a stay at home mom. So it was definitely a challenge for her to fulfill the obligations of being a business woman, wife, and mother. She didn't want a big family. When I met Clio, she was a typical college educated smart woman with a Type A personality.
Clio: If you would have asked my college friends who's going to be home with five kids, I would have been the last one on the list. I didn't see much value in what it takes to raise a family. I valued having a career over a family. If we had not started a business together and only worked in a corporate office; we would have definitely been divorced today. (laughter)
Reginald: That's 100% true because there's no way that Clio would have tolerated me being an absent father because of work life. That's just a reality! Clio is smart and articulate. Her vision was to be a Corporate Executive … not a stay-at-home-mom.
We arranged our schedules so that both of us would be home around 3PM to take care of the kids. If we had left it to just one person, there's no way our marriage could have survived.
Lakol: What has been your greatest joy and your greatest challenge in raising the five children?
Clio: Raising five children in North America can be very hard … especially, if you want to do a good job, if you want to be involved, and also be there for the kids. When the kids were growing up, the thing that they remember me saying over and over again, “Oh dear Lord, God give me strength!" (laughter)
It was hard. I didn’t grow up in the U.S. I grew up in Haiti. Most of the time, as kids, you were not raised to do chores because you have people who cook and people who clean. So when I came to America, I didn't know how to run a household. I went from being a corporate woman in Canada to being a full-time mom in the United States. To keep my sanity, I had to run my household like an office. I had to have structure! (laughter)
Naomy, Alexandre and Raphael Grand'Pierre
If you came to my house when the kids were young, you would have noticed that I had schedules for them. Although it was challenging, my biggest joy was when we were together. We had fun together not only as a family but also as a couple.
Sometimes you have a dysfunctional family where people don't get along. Our children are not only siblings, but also good friends. We all went to Paris to support Alexandre in the 2024 Paris Olympics and we had a blast!
We genuinely enjoy each other's company. I can say that being with my family is my biggest joy. We don't need any guests to have a party. Right? (Clio turns to her husband & smiles.)
Lakol: One of the things that you mentioned is structure. What does a typical day look like? What time do your children wake up, have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and go to bed? Please give me a little bit of insight into that structure you created in your home.
It depends. I homeschooled our children for a number of years. We lived on the West End where the schools in the area were not very good. My thought was, "I'm not going to send my kids to school here. Over my dead body!” So I homeschooled them until we could afford private school. When they were homeschooled, wake up time was usually between 7 AM and 7:30 AM. Soon after, they would have breakfast. Their first snack time was around 10AM. Lunch was served between 12PM to 12:30PM. Their second snack time was around 2:30PM. Dinner was served between 5PM and 6PM.
Naomy started school in the 3rd grade at a Catholic School (St. John the Evangelist). That's also when our other children started going to school. When they started school, they would wake up between 6 AM and 6:30 AM. They would have snacks and lunch at their school. They came home around 4:00 PM and completed their homework assignments soon afterwards. I would put them to bed by 8 o'clock. I didn’t have the mental capacity to be a mom after 8PM. I remember during the summertime, they would come to me and say, “Mom, the sun is still shining outside!” I'm like, “Kids, for your safety and my sanity, you better stay in bed!” (Laughter) They would look at me with those big little eyes. You could see that they didn't really get it, but they understood that they had to stay in bed even though it appeared to still be daylight outside. When all five children started swimming classes; dinner time was pushed back to 8:30 PM. (The swimming lessons or practices would run from 5PM to 8PM, Monday to Friday, year after year.)
Sometimes you have a dysfunctional family where people don't get along. Our children are not only siblings, but also good friends. We all went to Paris to support Alexandre in the 2024 Paris Olympics and we had a blast!
We genuinely enjoy each other's company. I can say that being with my family is my biggest joy. We don't need any guests to have a party. Right? (Clio turns to her husband & smiles.)
Lakol: One of the things that you mentioned is structure. What does a typical day look like? What time do your children wake up, have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and go to bed? Please give me a little bit of insight into that structure you created in your home.
It depends. I homeschooled our children for a number of years. We lived on the West End where the schools in the area were not very good. My thought was, "I'm not going to send my kids to school here. Over my dead body!” So I homeschooled them until we could afford private school. When they were homeschooled, wake up time was usually between 7 AM and 7:30 AM. Soon after, they would have breakfast. Their first snack time was around 10AM. Lunch was served between 12PM to 12:30PM. Their second snack time was around 2:30PM. Dinner was served between 5PM and 6PM.
Naomy started school in the 3rd grade at a Catholic School (St. John the Evangelist). That's also when our other children started going to school. When they started school, they would wake up between 6 AM and 6:30 AM. They would have snacks and lunch at their school. They came home around 4:00 PM and completed their homework assignments soon afterwards. I would put them to bed by 8 o'clock. I didn’t have the mental capacity to be a mom after 8PM. I remember during the summertime, they would come to me and say, “Mom, the sun is still shining outside!” I'm like, “Kids, for your safety and my sanity, you better stay in bed!” (Laughter) They would look at me with those big little eyes. You could see that they didn't really get it, but they understood that they had to stay in bed even though it appeared to still be daylight outside. When all five children started swimming classes; dinner time was pushed back to 8:30 PM. (The swimming lessons or practices would run from 5PM to 8PM, Monday to Friday, year after year.)
Lakol: Who is the chef of the house?
Clio: Actually, both Reggie and I cook. We alternated. If he was available to cook, he would cook. If I was available, I would cook. It’s not as if there is only one chef in the house. Since we worked together, we ran the household as a team. We've always arranged our schedule for both of us to be available for the kids. That was certainly a blessing. Raising our 5 children became our biggest project!
Lakol: What was the most difficult time in your marriage?
Clio: I think the hardest time for a couple is the first year of marriage. Why is that? The first year of marriage is the adjustment period. The same thing that attracts you to your partner when you first meet can become the very thing that drives you crazy when you start living together. So when people say, “It’s both a blessing and a curse”, that is what they mean. In my case, it was mostly a blessing. But, we had to learn to adjust to living with each other. We grew to appreciate our different strengths and show patience towards our
shortcomings.
Lakol: How much compromising do you feel that you have done?
Clio: We are fortunate that when we met, we had the privilege to build a business together. There is a saying that “Couples who do business together, stay together.” So maybe that's the secret of our marriage. After Reggie came to Montreal in 1994, we merged our lives together and got involved in network marketing through AMWAY. We attended regular seminars about business and relationships. We were fortunate to have successful couples share their personal experiences and valuable wisdom keys of life. They encouraged us to read books like, ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. From this book we learned that men and women are opposites. We are wired differently. There are certain things that your partner is not going to do the same as you do, and it’s okay. Many of the things that these couples shared, unfortunately, were not taught in our Haitian community.
I have seen some Haitian marriages end in divorce, while others became roommates over the years. Some couples experienced infidelity, and still chose to remain married … although they live separate lives. These successful couples from the AMWAY business gave use tools to help rekindle our love. They encouraged us to use good communication skills to keep our marriage intact, while skillfully balancing work and family life. (AMWAY's core values are Freedom, Family, Hope, and Reward.)
Fun fact: The success of a business increases when couples remain married. Successful couples and families have successful businesses. Believe it or not, running a company, while raising our children, has helped us tremendously.
Lakol: What was the biggest financial strain on your marriage?
Clio: We’re still married today. (laughter) I think the biggest financial strain on our marriage was the recession of 2008. We are self-employed. The main source of our income was our cleaning business. Our business was running well, and then it seemed out of nowhere, everything came crashing down! That put a lot of pressure on us as parents, as business partners, and also as business owners. During the recession in October of 2008, we had a lot of clients in real-estate and the mortgage industry. When the market crashed, we lost 60-65% of our revenue in less than a month. At that time, we had about 15-20 employees to do payroll every week. We were servicing 20-25 clients a day.
It was mostly hard on Reggie because he suffered from tension-headaches. When Reggie was having those tension headaches, it was so bad that he had to go to the emergency room. Every time he would go, they would give him a hard dose of morphine to make the tension headache go away. That was a very stressful time. At one point, the doctor told Reggie, “You can’t continue to come to the ER every two weeks.” So they prescribed a medication that was going to cost $500 a month. (And it's at the same time, I believe, many doctors began prescribing opioids. During the recession many people became addicted to prescription pain medicine. In 2011, the CDC declared the deaths from prescription painkillers an epidemic.)
Because we were going through a financial hardship, we knew that we were not going to be able to afford the cost of the medication. Reggie and I both decided that it would be better for him to go to Haiti to just disconnect from all of the stress and reset. Raphael was about three years old at that time. Since he was a preschooler, he would go to Haiti with Reggie. The other four kids would remain with me in the U.S. and continue to go to school. I would run the business and manage the household. Reggie spent about three months in Haiti with our youngest son, Raphael. He attended kindergarten in Haiti.
Fun fact: Raphael came back to the U.S. fully fluent in French. (Children are sponges. They are able to learn a new language quickly.)
Clio: Actually, both Reggie and I cook. We alternated. If he was available to cook, he would cook. If I was available, I would cook. It’s not as if there is only one chef in the house. Since we worked together, we ran the household as a team. We've always arranged our schedule for both of us to be available for the kids. That was certainly a blessing. Raising our 5 children became our biggest project!
Lakol: What was the most difficult time in your marriage?
Clio: I think the hardest time for a couple is the first year of marriage. Why is that? The first year of marriage is the adjustment period. The same thing that attracts you to your partner when you first meet can become the very thing that drives you crazy when you start living together. So when people say, “It’s both a blessing and a curse”, that is what they mean. In my case, it was mostly a blessing. But, we had to learn to adjust to living with each other. We grew to appreciate our different strengths and show patience towards our
shortcomings.
Lakol: How much compromising do you feel that you have done?
Clio: We are fortunate that when we met, we had the privilege to build a business together. There is a saying that “Couples who do business together, stay together.” So maybe that's the secret of our marriage. After Reggie came to Montreal in 1994, we merged our lives together and got involved in network marketing through AMWAY. We attended regular seminars about business and relationships. We were fortunate to have successful couples share their personal experiences and valuable wisdom keys of life. They encouraged us to read books like, ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. From this book we learned that men and women are opposites. We are wired differently. There are certain things that your partner is not going to do the same as you do, and it’s okay. Many of the things that these couples shared, unfortunately, were not taught in our Haitian community.
I have seen some Haitian marriages end in divorce, while others became roommates over the years. Some couples experienced infidelity, and still chose to remain married … although they live separate lives. These successful couples from the AMWAY business gave use tools to help rekindle our love. They encouraged us to use good communication skills to keep our marriage intact, while skillfully balancing work and family life. (AMWAY's core values are Freedom, Family, Hope, and Reward.)
Fun fact: The success of a business increases when couples remain married. Successful couples and families have successful businesses. Believe it or not, running a company, while raising our children, has helped us tremendously.
Lakol: What was the biggest financial strain on your marriage?
Clio: We’re still married today. (laughter) I think the biggest financial strain on our marriage was the recession of 2008. We are self-employed. The main source of our income was our cleaning business. Our business was running well, and then it seemed out of nowhere, everything came crashing down! That put a lot of pressure on us as parents, as business partners, and also as business owners. During the recession in October of 2008, we had a lot of clients in real-estate and the mortgage industry. When the market crashed, we lost 60-65% of our revenue in less than a month. At that time, we had about 15-20 employees to do payroll every week. We were servicing 20-25 clients a day.
It was mostly hard on Reggie because he suffered from tension-headaches. When Reggie was having those tension headaches, it was so bad that he had to go to the emergency room. Every time he would go, they would give him a hard dose of morphine to make the tension headache go away. That was a very stressful time. At one point, the doctor told Reggie, “You can’t continue to come to the ER every two weeks.” So they prescribed a medication that was going to cost $500 a month. (And it's at the same time, I believe, many doctors began prescribing opioids. During the recession many people became addicted to prescription pain medicine. In 2011, the CDC declared the deaths from prescription painkillers an epidemic.)
Because we were going through a financial hardship, we knew that we were not going to be able to afford the cost of the medication. Reggie and I both decided that it would be better for him to go to Haiti to just disconnect from all of the stress and reset. Raphael was about three years old at that time. Since he was a preschooler, he would go to Haiti with Reggie. The other four kids would remain with me in the U.S. and continue to go to school. I would run the business and manage the household. Reggie spent about three months in Haiti with our youngest son, Raphael. He attended kindergarten in Haiti.
Fun fact: Raphael came back to the U.S. fully fluent in French. (Children are sponges. They are able to learn a new language quickly.)
Clio & Reginald Grand'Pierre
Lakol: What is the name of your cleaning business?
Clio: Total Maintenance Inc.
Lakol: When did you start it? How long have you had it?
Clio: We started that business in 1999. It was centered on residential cleaning only. We've been in business for 25 years. Our contractors depend on us. If we close this business down, our employees will lose their livelihood and their families will suffer greatly. Our clients that we serve also depend on us. So we made the decision to keep the business running in spite of our financial challenges. (It's running pretty much on automatic pilot now.)
The economy changed once again due to COVID-19. Over the years, Reggie expanded Total Maintenance by
creating a new division that focuses on Project Management. This has brought in extra income. (Reggie helps other businesses reach their goals and objectives by optimizing their time efficiently and budget effectively.)
Lakol: It is inspiring to know that you were able to reinvent yourself despite the recession.
Lakol: Did you have any family members here in the U.S. to help or assist you with raising the children? Did you have any help outside of your family, or were you basically on your own?
Clio: I can tell you for a fact that Reggie’s parents were very helpful. If I’m still married today, it's because of them. That's why it's so important to have parents and grandparents involved in the family. Reggie's parents spent a minimum of three months with us every winter. They would also spend the holidays with us and sometimes would be here for six months. They would call and check up on the kids when they were away. When they were physically with us, they would teach our children how to cook Haitian food. Basically, they are the ones who helped pass down Haitian culture through food, storytelling, and music. That's why our kids are proud of their Haitian heritage to this day.
Both of our parents came from dysfunctional families. Reggie’s mother was born out of wedlock. His father too. I was also born out of wedlock. Reggie’s mom made the decision that having out of wedlock children would end with her family. Reggie’s mother, Marie-Louise, made a covenant with her husband Emmanuel that they would not have any children outside of their marriage. They remained married for more than 50 years for the sake of their 2 sons and 10 grandchildren. Reggie’s mom, Mrs. Marie-Louise Grand’Pierre, is the one who told me whenever I was discouraged and wanted to quit, to hold on to my family. Lorna, I can say that the couples from the Amway business gave us the nuts and bolts of how to build a successful family. Reggie's mom, on the other, made me realize that in order for a marriage to succeed, it's on the woman. The moment a woman quits that's when the marriage dissolves.
My mother-in-law also made me realize there's nothing that your husband can do that can’t be overcome or forgiven for the sake of your family. So basically, Reggie's mom reminded me to always envision the type of marriage I wanted and to hold on to this image no matter how hard things got. During our 29 years of marriage, we have had our ups and downs. We've had health challenges, issues with our children. Despite that, we always try to remember our dreams. That’s the reality we try to create everyday.
In one of the books that I read, it says that you need to have the end in mind. You need to envision the ideal family that you want to create. Try to visualize your children becoming adults, starting their own families, and producing grandchildren. By holding on to that image, you can overcome whatever difficulties you have to endure at the present time. If you don't keep the ideal image in mind to encourage you; whenever challenges come, it's easier to call it quits.
Sometimes I wanted to run away. Reggie would tell me, “If you run, I’m running after you.” That’s why I love and stuck with this man. (Laughter)
Lakol: How did you discipline the children? Please elaborate.
Clio: I think the discipline also came from Reggie's mom. I will talk about discipline from what Mrs. Marie-Louise told me and then Reggie will take over. There are a lot of strong Haitian women and Reggie’s mom was definitely one of them. Mrs. Marie-Louise was a very “tough cookie”. She's the one who told me that as parents, you will either cry when you discipline the children when they are young, or you will cry later when they become adults because you didn't discipline them. This advice always stuck in the back of my head. It's important to discipline the kids while they are young, before it's too late. It is similar to a tree. If you allow the tree to grow crooked, that’s it, it can't be straightened!
Clio: I can tell you for a fact that Reggie’s parents were very helpful. If I’m still married today, it's because of them. That's why it's so important to have parents and grandparents involved in the family. Reggie's parents spent a minimum of three months with us every winter. They would also spend the holidays with us and sometimes would be here for six months. They would call and check up on the kids when they were away. When they were physically with us, they would teach our children how to cook Haitian food. Basically, they are the ones who helped pass down Haitian culture through food, storytelling, and music. That's why our kids are proud of their Haitian heritage to this day.
Both of our parents came from dysfunctional families. Reggie’s mother was born out of wedlock. His father too. I was also born out of wedlock. Reggie’s mom made the decision that having out of wedlock children would end with her family. Reggie’s mother, Marie-Louise, made a covenant with her husband Emmanuel that they would not have any children outside of their marriage. They remained married for more than 50 years for the sake of their 2 sons and 10 grandchildren. Reggie’s mom, Mrs. Marie-Louise Grand’Pierre, is the one who told me whenever I was discouraged and wanted to quit, to hold on to my family. Lorna, I can say that the couples from the Amway business gave us the nuts and bolts of how to build a successful family. Reggie's mom, on the other, made me realize that in order for a marriage to succeed, it's on the woman. The moment a woman quits that's when the marriage dissolves.
My mother-in-law also made me realize there's nothing that your husband can do that can’t be overcome or forgiven for the sake of your family. So basically, Reggie's mom reminded me to always envision the type of marriage I wanted and to hold on to this image no matter how hard things got. During our 29 years of marriage, we have had our ups and downs. We've had health challenges, issues with our children. Despite that, we always try to remember our dreams. That’s the reality we try to create everyday.
In one of the books that I read, it says that you need to have the end in mind. You need to envision the ideal family that you want to create. Try to visualize your children becoming adults, starting their own families, and producing grandchildren. By holding on to that image, you can overcome whatever difficulties you have to endure at the present time. If you don't keep the ideal image in mind to encourage you; whenever challenges come, it's easier to call it quits.
Sometimes I wanted to run away. Reggie would tell me, “If you run, I’m running after you.” That’s why I love and stuck with this man. (Laughter)
Lakol: How did you discipline the children? Please elaborate.
Clio: I think the discipline also came from Reggie's mom. I will talk about discipline from what Mrs. Marie-Louise told me and then Reggie will take over. There are a lot of strong Haitian women and Reggie’s mom was definitely one of them. Mrs. Marie-Louise was a very “tough cookie”. She's the one who told me that as parents, you will either cry when you discipline the children when they are young, or you will cry later when they become adults because you didn't discipline them. This advice always stuck in the back of my head. It's important to discipline the kids while they are young, before it's too late. It is similar to a tree. If you allow the tree to grow crooked, that’s it, it can't be straightened!
Lakol: Please tell me a little bit about your faith? Did you attend church regularly?
Reginald: I'm very conservative. Clio was not conservative when I first met her.
Clio: I didn’t go to church. I actually spent 12 years rebelling against the Catholic church. Since Reggie was going to church every Sunday, I started going as well. The only reason I went to church is because he was cute and I wanted to spend time with him. (laughter)
Reggie's going to say that he dragged us to church screaming. We didn't want to attend a Haitian church because the services were so long. (laughter)
Lakol: As far as discipline, Reggie, would you consider yourself to be the disciplinarian in the family?
Reginald: Yes, in terms of discipline. Clio would be the first to say, "That's how I was raised." I echo a more traditional way of raising children. Because Clio and I both adopted that mindset, we had very little disagreements in terms of the discipline inside of the house. Since we've always been on the same page, I believe that is why we were successful in raising 5 kids. (Oftentimes couples who don't agree on how to discipline their kids or the level of discipline, will experience conflict resulting in marital problems.)
Lakol: Did you use corporal punishment or time out? Or do you prefer to have discussions with your children? Please tell me a little bit about that.
Clio: That's a great question. If you discipline the kids when they are young, when they're older, all you have to do is talk to them.
Reginald: I'm very conservative. Clio was not conservative when I first met her.
Clio: I didn’t go to church. I actually spent 12 years rebelling against the Catholic church. Since Reggie was going to church every Sunday, I started going as well. The only reason I went to church is because he was cute and I wanted to spend time with him. (laughter)
Reggie's going to say that he dragged us to church screaming. We didn't want to attend a Haitian church because the services were so long. (laughter)
Lakol: As far as discipline, Reggie, would you consider yourself to be the disciplinarian in the family?
Reginald: Yes, in terms of discipline. Clio would be the first to say, "That's how I was raised." I echo a more traditional way of raising children. Because Clio and I both adopted that mindset, we had very little disagreements in terms of the discipline inside of the house. Since we've always been on the same page, I believe that is why we were successful in raising 5 kids. (Oftentimes couples who don't agree on how to discipline their kids or the level of discipline, will experience conflict resulting in marital problems.)
Lakol: Did you use corporal punishment or time out? Or do you prefer to have discussions with your children? Please tell me a little bit about that.
Clio: That's a great question. If you discipline the kids when they are young, when they're older, all you have to do is talk to them.