Whitney and Cissy Houston on the joys and worries of motherhood

Ebony, May, 1995 by Lynn Norment

I'VE never found anything more fulfilling than being a mother."

That's quite a profound statement, considering it flows from the mouth of Whitney Houston, the world-renowned supertalented diva with the golden voice and more than 66 million album sales to her credit.

Yet, this simple, from-the-heart declaration is not surprising, for neither fame nor fortune, nor a truckload of awards and thousands of adoring fans can compare to the incredible feeling, the state of being, the satisfaction that comes from and the art that is motherhood.

"I never thought I could love as much as I love her," Whitney continues, referring to her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who is playing nearby. "I never thought that I could worry as much, and she's only 2 years old. I worried when she was inside of me and I worry more now that she's out of me. She teaches me about love everyday."

Seated comfortably in a spacious rented house in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she was filming the movie Waiting To Exhale, a slim and vibrant Whitney Houston talked about the "joys and worries" of motherhood. She also praised the job that her own mother, singer Cissy Houston, did in rearing her and two brothers while pursuing her own show business career.

It was just three years ago in July that a proud, teary-eyed Cissy Houston watched her daughter walk down the aisle and exchange wedding vows with hip-hop recording artist Bobby Brown in a dazzling million-dollar wedding attended by hundreds of celebrity friends and family members at Whitney's New Jersey estate. Since then the famous couple has been hounded by reports that there is marital discord. But Whitney insists that theirs is a loving, harmonious marriage, and that they have no more marital spats than any other couple.

Since her marriage, Whitney, who has won five Grammy Awards, has experienced the incredible high of appearing in her first film, the very successful The Bodyguard opposite Kevin Costner, and receiving numerous awards for the movie's soundtrack (which has sold more than 28 million units worldwide) and its popular single, "I Will Always Love You."

But Whitney says that none of that --not the fame, not the accolades, not the wealth, not the awards--compares to the joys of motherhood.

"Having a child is like a whole new world, a whole new thing," she asserts. "My mother said to me when I was a child, 'You'll understand better when you have your own.' And I do. I understand the concern, the responsibility of having a child. There are a lot of joys and a lot of worries." She tells of how a few days earlier, she became alarmed that the baby-sitter and her daughter had not returned when she arrived home from the movie set. "It was dark and I was very concerned," she reveals, recalling how she just stood in the driveway with tears streaming down her face. When her husband asked why she was standing outside, she replied that her own mother had stood in the doorway many times when she was a child, awaiting her return home.

"As a mother you try to give your child the best that you can," Whitney continues, "and the best thing I can give Bobbi Kristina is the love of God, and to teach her the way I was taught. Whatever you do, train a child up in the way of God, no matter what."

Whitney points out that she was quite a different 2-year-old-child from her daughter, yet there are some similarities. "I was more mature than Bobbi Kris," says the adoring mother. "I was shy. Bobbi Kris is very outgoing, like her father. She is very independent, and she and I are alike in that respect. And sometimes she has moments when she is very shy and she just wants to be to herself."

Whitney recalls how as a shy little girl, she tried to fit in with the other kids at her public elementary school in East Orange, N.J., but often got teased for her "nice clothes" and "pretty hair." At times, says her mother, Whitney came home from school in tears.

After sixth grade, Whitney transferred to a private school, where she says: "I didn't have to fight anybody and I didn't have anybody who wanted to fight me. I hated hiding."

But Whitney is confident that her daughter will not have such experiences. "Bobbi Kris will stand up for herself and she will fight you," says the mother. "And I like that, because it makes me feel a bit more secure about how she's going to deal with people and how people should deal with her."

In separate interviews, Whitney and her mother both refer to similar incidents in Whitney's childhood and use the same adjectives to describe a young Whitney. And both mothers indicate unequivocally that they do not believe in sparing the rod.

"Yes, I discipline her," Whitney says, "on occasion when I really think that Bobbi Kris is beside herself, which sometimes she is. And I am the disciplinarian, because her father is putty and he never lays a hand on any of his children. But he has a way of making things understood, like my dad did. I try not to spank Bobbi. The Bible says, 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.' If you take a rod to the child, you make the child respect you, help that child understand that there has to be mutual respect. Bobbi Kris can't cross a certain line with me. She knows that.