If You Could Slap A Baldwin...
Blog by Sean Gehon, Monday, April 23, 2007
They say the most rewarding experience in life is raising a child. For many parents sending their child off to day care for the first time can be an emotional experience. Watching, teaching, and raising your child to be an upstanding citizen is probably the greatest responsibility a parent has. Without instilling good morals, work ethic, and a sense of humanity, the next generation is likely to wage a nuclear war. The way we raise our children, and help to raise our children’s children, is more meaningful than many people realize. We’re not here to coddle children, we’re here to love and respect them.
The war between Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger has been waging for years. It’s one of those fights that has continued for so long that nobody has any idea what they’re fighting over anymore. Good breakups, like that of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, tend to keep their children out of the drama. Usually, it is in the best interest of all those involved to remain friendly in front of the kids. Alec Baldwin however, has chosen to wage war against his ex wife, often leaving his child stuck in the middle. Most recently, Alec Baldwin left a scathing voice mail for his eleven year old daughter Ireland.
In recent reports, Alec Baldwin was found referring to his daughter as a “thoughtless little pig” and threatening to “straighten her ass out”. If this is the treatment Ireland receives for missing a phone call, I’d hate to see what would happen if she were to crash Daddy’s car up. As far as abusive parenting goes there are far worse things that Alec Baldwin could have said or done to his daughter. That being said, I’m not about to excuse Alec’s angry behaviour, what he said to his daughter is completely inexcusable.
Being eleven years old is the beginnings of the awkward years in a child’s life. Ireland Baldwin is currently caught between her childhood and her burdening teen years. With everything that goes through a person’s mind during that time, the last thing you should be dealing with is negative pressure and words from your parents. I’m fully capable of realizing that some kids need a good smack up side the head from time to time, and may need to be scolded and informed of the truths of life, but to call someone a pig is crossing the line. When I think of a pig I don’t think of an eleven year old girl, I think of a fat, disgusting, smelly creature rolling around in its own feces. To compare your daughter to a pig, even in a moment of rage is completely inexcusable.
Threatening your child, berating your child, and being a general moron is simply a fancy way of calling yourself a bully. For a man of Alec Baldwin’s age to stoop so low as to assert is authority and superiority over his own daughter really makes me sick. Unfortunately, Alec isn’t the only bad guy in this situation… Kim Basinger is certainly no saint. Kim Basinger really showed the kind of person she is by leaking the tape out to the media. Technically Kim Basinger has not admitted or been proven to have leaked the tape, but it’s not a far stretch to imagine she did it. If in fact Kim did leak the tape, not only does that set a poor example for her daughter, it makes her look quite pathetic. Maturity is apparently something you don’t learn with age, it’s something you make the decision to achieve.
Unfortunately for Ireland Baldwin, life hasn’t dealt her the best hand. With two feuding parents, a father in desperate need of anger management, and a mother more desperate than the women of The Bachelor, Ireland is going to have an interesting upbringing. It’s going to be a unique reality show playing out in the eyes of the media as we watch Ireland grow up, I can only hope that somewhere out there she has a grounding force watching over her. Ireland’s unfortunate upbringing may not bring about the end of the Earth, and it may not matter five years down the road, but she’s going to be one hurt child with a lot of bitter feelings that may indeed affect the earth.
I take this moment to urge parents of the world to take care of their kids. Don’t coddle them, don’t treat them as though they’ll break if they climb a tree, but raise them to understand that it isn’t what you own, or who’s boss you are, but the person inside that matters. A caring heart, a sense of courage in the face of adversity, and the strength to be yourself when others would put you down is really what matters. These are the values we should be instilling in our children instead of wasting time making them feel more awkward than they probably already do.
Sean (At least we know Jann Arden had a Good Mother.)
