Speaking to Better Homes & Gardens in 2023 about her upbringing with her siblings in Chockie, Oklahoma, McEntire shared that her father taught them to make their beds every single morning. And it’s something she still does to this day.

“There were four of us kids growing up in a very small house, so if you didn’t pick up your things and get them out of the living room it got a little cluttered,” she told the magazine. “Daddy made us kids all make our beds when we got out of it in the morning, and that’s what I do still today.”

“I taught Shelby the same thing,” she added. “It’s very important to make your bed in the morning, that is a standing rule.”

Reba McEntire’s late mother “inspired us kids” to sing

It wasn’t just dad and his bed-making that made McEntire who she is. Her later mother, Jacqueline Smith, always encouraged her to sing.

After her mother’s passing, the country star reflected on her grief, telling TODAY, “Oh I didn’t want to (sing). I told my little sister Susie when we were working at the house, I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to sing anymore.’ She said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because I always sang for Mama.’”

“Mama was the one that inspired us kids, taught us kids how to sing, took us to our singing gigs and was our biggest cheerleader,” she added, revealing that it was her mother’s wish to be a singer herself. “She said, ‘Reba, I will be living my dreams through you.’ So golly, why wouldn’t you want to go sing?”

Shelby didn’t follow his mom into music, but the proud mom has included her son in her songs. In the intro to McEntire’s cover of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” for instance, she sings: “Christmas toys all over the place / Little Shelby wears a funny smile on his face / Shelby has a secret / And the secret he must share / He wants to tell somebody / So he tells his teddy bear.”