LONDON: Whitney Houston is a contender for celebrity mum of the year she only agreed to her eagerly-anticipated comeback when she was sure her teenage daughter trusted her as a mother.

The R&B superstar reveals she stepped back from the limelight to be a full-time mum to Bobbi Kristina, her daughter with ex-husband Bobby Brown, and she's very pleased with the job she has done.

She tells Ebony magazine, "She and I are not only mother and daughter, but we're good friends. I want her to trust me, to be able to trust in me, to know that I'm not going nowhere. If she knows that I'm there for her, she can depend on me. I'm the dependable one; she can depend on her mommy."

And the time away from the stage and studio made Houston a better daughter to her own mum Cissy: "My mother's getting older. I wanted to spend more time with my mom (because during) most of my 20s and 30s, I was dealing with making records and travelling the world and being this thing - icon."