Father of the Year
Note to self: the next time Alec Baldwin calls—pick up the phone! The man loathes voicemail…
A lot is being made over this Alec Baldwin yelling at his kid. Didn’t any of these critics have parents? Were none of them subjected to a rant from a parent where they went a little bonkers, yelling at them? What Ireland was subjected to was not child abuse, but childhood!
Every time my mother or father sat down with me to discuss something, I would secretly wish they would just scream at me and get it over with. Yelling lasted only a few minutes, discussions lasted for an eternity.
My parents did not yell much; they were not screamers. However, if I really f’d up? There would be yelling. Of that I could be assured. (Something tells me that Ireland has pulled the phone stunt on daddy a few times before.)
What my parents did not do was yell at me in front of other people. Whenever I would be at a friend’s house and their mom would start screaming at them, my fight-or-flight instinct would kick in*. There I was, heading for the door, with my buddy pleading, “Stay! Stay! For the love of God, she’s going to skin me alive!” Which only made me move to the door faster: Sorry, buddy, but if she’s going to threaten to kill her only son, what his she going to do to the kid down the street she can’t stand?
Two rules of parenting: no scars** and no witnesses. Don’t hit your kid in public, give them “the look”, or say, “Now see here!” and wait until you get home. Because we all know that what happens behind your well-manicured front yard, stays behind your well-manicured front yard. Sadly, for Alec, we are all witnesses.
Parents yell. Parents shout. Parents get to treat their kids in a way they would never treat a stranger. It’s called family. You yell, you insult, you tease… and then you forgive because you love each other.***
I’m not saying that what Alec did was right; I’m saying we’ve all ranted and been ranted at. We’ve all said things we wish we hadn’t, but those moments aren’t caught on tape.
In my book, bad parenting is putting that information out on the web and publicly involving your child in your custody battle. That, boys and girls, is abuse.
*I always opted for flight
**Emotional scaring does not apply—otherwise, what’s the point of being a parent?
***Or because YOU want to stay in The Will and THEY don’t want you to put them in a lousy nursing home.
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