Sting - Sting Isn't An Ideal Father

Sting Isn't An Ideal Father

Sting isn't an ''ideal'' father.

The 60-year-old singer - who has four children with wife Trudie Styler and two kids from his marriage to Frances Tomelty - didn't learn very much from his own parents about raising a family and admits being on the road a lot make the job even harder.

He said: ''I've never been an ideal father because of my job and because of the way I was parented - it didn't give me any clues about how to do it.''

However, Sting believes his children have still turned out well.

He said: ''But my kids seem to have survived that and they are all great, balanced and hard-working.''

The 'Message in a Bottle' hitmaker was married to first wife Frances for eight years until 1984 and he regards the breakdown of their union as his only ''failure'' in life.

He said of the marriage: ''It's the only thing I've ever failed at.''

Sting's children are all creative, two of them are in a band, three involved in film-making and acting, and one, Giacomo, who is still at school.

However Sting says Giacomo, 16, doesn't want to follow in the family's creative footsteps.

He said: ''He claims he doesn't want to be creative because it's not a real job. He says that he wants to be a policeman.

''I think he will happily go the other way; this is his rebellion against a family of actors and musicians, which I can understand.''