As a Bronx native and casual Cardi B fan, I learned a lot about the love-her-and-hate-her representative of our community when I watched five interviews she did – on CBS Morning with Gail King, The Breakfast Club, I’m Real Life with Angie Martinez, Joe and Jada, and Jay Shetty – to promote her new album. On all of them, she expresses her strong cultural values and traditions around family, child-rearing, and hard work. These are the same values that were instilled in me as a child, and I know I’m not the only one. Despite her big and dynamic personality, Cardi B is just like us. Here are five reasons why:

1. “I’m Very Scared of My Parents”

Gayle King was utterly surprised when Cardi B announced her pregnancy with boyfriend Steffon Diggs first on CBS Morning before telling her parents. But, the shock subsided when she admitted to King, “I’m very scared of my parents.” Although King chuckled in response, Cardi’s statement resonated with me deeply. I remembered when I was in my early 20s, my Dominican mother shared with me that she was “afraid” of my grandmother. There was some sibling tension going on, and she didn’t want to share that type of info with my grandma – both because she didn’t want to disappoint her and doing so went against family dynamics. That’s what her “scared” meant, and I think that’s what Cardi B means too – it’s about the deep respect she has for her parents and how much she values their opinion. So I wasn’t surprised when Cardi said, “I didn’t even tell my parents.” It’s the same M.O. when someone shares a secret, followed by “No dile a Mami/Papi.” That’s the dynamic.

2. “I Love Family”

In almost every interview I watched, Cardi references family. On the podcast Joe and Jada, she shares how she always dreamt about having a big family, with the big house, and the white picket fence. When asked by Jay Shetty, “How many kids do you want?” Cardi B said six – which goes against her generation’s norm. Most millennials (which Cardi is) are either not having children or having just one or two. Cardi’s desire is more in conversation with our grandparents’ generation when 10-15 kids wasn’t unusual.

Plus, Cardi B stated a typical Dominican cliche on the Jay Shetty Podcast: “I always wanted a big family, and there’s a higher possibility I won’t be in a living assistant home with all these kids.” In Caribbean culture, especially Dominican culture, it is a cardinal sin to place your parents in a home. So Cardi wanting six kids reflects the defined cultural expectation. Although, regardless of how many kids she has, she has the financial resources to do whatever – just don’t put her in a nursing home! OKURRRR!

3. “You Ain’t Bringing No B**tch in My House!”

On Angie Martinez’s podcast, In Real Life, Cardi became very passionate when she spoke about her upcoming conversations with her son and daughters when they get older. She tells Martinez unapologetically that if her son were to get a girl pregnant, “Don’t think I’m going to help you cuz I ain’t. You better get a job. You ain’t bring no b**tch to live in my house.” Although very serious, she laughed with Martinez, admitting she doesn’t know where these ideas come from since she didn’t grow up with boys.

But I’m willing to guess these ideas came from her Trinidadian mother, who was strict with both Cardi and her sister Hennessy growing up. In the interview, Cardi shared that her mother would tell them, “If you get pregnant, you have to get out of my house. There can’t be two women in this house.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard Caribbean parents, including my own, say this exact thing, naming common cultural attitudes surrounding teen pregnancy, or even just children not being “the adult,” especially if you don’t pay bills. PERIOD.

4. “Please Don’t Be A Bum. Don’t Be Lazy”

I laughed at Cardi’s response to Jay Shetty’s question, “What’s one quality or skill you have that you really want your children to learn and develop as they get older?” Yes, she said, “Please don’t be a bum. Don’t be lazy.” She was answering sincerely and sternly. Cardi praises herself for coming from a line of strong women, acknowledging her grandmothers for how hard-working they were back in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad before immigrating to the U.S. with all of their children. She expresses the same sentiment about her mother – how she worked hard every day and never asked for help. Cardi B takes great pride in this work ethic and wants her children to do the same. She specifically stated, “Please don’t be nothing. That would be the worst disappointment.”

Many parents may have this feat, but the stakes are higher when you’re an immigrant family who’s made so many sacrifices. Cardi B, a first-generation child, knows the story of her lineage, and thus works hard, taking pride that her success is the result of her putting up her own money and diligently promoting herself for a decade. With these answers, Ms. Cardi is at her most relatable, particularly to other Caribbean people. She expressed so much of our culture when she thought of her kids and said, “I ain’t busting my ass for y’all to be nothing.”

5. “I Want You to Be Better Than Me!”

Cardi goes on hard on wanting her kids to adopt her work ethic, because she wants them to be better than her, knowing their immense position of privilege. They aren’t coming up in her humble beginnings in the Bronx or like her parents did in their respective Caribbean islands. She shares her children’s schedule with Jay Shetty: Four times a week, they go to tutoring after school for reading, writing, and math. Once that is over, they’ve got additional extracurricular activities such as swimming, piano, and sports. Her reasoning for this strict schedule? “It’s discipline. I want you to be a hundred times better than me.” More importantly, she’s giving her kids access to activities she couldn’t do because her parents couldn’t afford them.

Watching these interviews, Cardi B made me laugh a lot. I expected that. But I was also nodding my head as she affirmed Caribbean values and ideals of marriage, family, education, and child-rearing. Even at her young age of 33, she holds wisdom that extends back generations. I also realized that behind all of Cardi B’s success, glamour, and big personality, she is indeed just a “regular, degular, shmegular girl from the Bronx” – but one living out her ancestors’ wildest dreams.