As a single parent I'm really offended and insulted by this guy

Tab

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Wed Sep-24-08 11:14 AM
Original message

As a single parent I'm really offended and insulted by this guy

(Note: I would have posted in the parenting group, but there's so little traffic there)

My wife was watching The View this morning, and they had Alec Baldwin on, probably because he just won an Emmy, and seems to be promoting a book, but they're asking him about his court problems. If you recall, a transcript of an answering machine message was released of a call he made to his daughter (who I think was 12). Part of it goes like this:

"Once again, I have made an axx of myself trying to get to a phone. You have made an axx out me of for the last time. Three letters: ABA. A, Always, B, Be, A, Answering. Always be answering. Always be answering. AIDA. Attention. Interest. Decision. Action. Attention. Do I have your attention? Interest. Are you interested? I know you are 'cause it's pick up the phone or get your axx straightened out.

You answer or you get hit with a brick. Decision. Have you made your decision to pick up the phone? And action. AIDA. Pick up the goddamn phone. You got a call coming in, you think I made it because I've got nothing better to do? I could be shouting sxxx at random people on the street, but I'm calling you. I don't care that you're twelve or eleven or whatever, are you pig enough to pick it up? I'm a good father, and you're a pig.

I don't give a sxxx. Good father. You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you thoughtless pain in the axx? AIDA. Get mad you daughter-of-a-bxxxx. Get mad. You know what it takes to answer my call? It takes brass balls to answer my call. Go and do likewise. The phone is ringing, you pick it up, it's yours, you don't, I got no sympathy for you. I'd wish you good luck, but you wouldn't know what to do with it if you got it. You better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with me. Pig. Oh, also, tell your mother I said "Go xxxx yourself." This is Dad, ring me back when you get a chance."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/224840/transcript_of_the_alec_baldwin_voicemail.html

On the show he's making the claim that the courts screwed him over because they want the "perfect parent" which (he claims) is hypocritical, because none of them in their real life is probably a perfect parent either, and he thinks he's being judged to a higher standard, when he's just trying to be a father.

Although I'm recently remarried, I was a single father for many years, effectively bringing my son up from early on by myself. I am not a perfect parent by any stretch of the imagination (if there is such a thing), but never ever could I conceive of leaving such a message for my son, much less later, when presented with the transcript, dismiss it by saying the courts are expecting too much and it's everyone's fault but mine.

He was trying to make it sound like being a single father is so hard that stuff like that is acceptable. It is work, I grant you that, but parenting is more than just providing food and shelter. In fact, food and shelter is the least of it, and he seems to be missing that fact, and I find it really offensive that he says something to the effect that he's being considered negatively on the basis of one phone call, which he dismisses as nothing.

As far as I'm concerned, he's a toxic influence on his child, and I feel badly for his daughter, and as someone who raised a child of the same age without benefit of my being a movie star and having the perks that go with it, I find it really insulting and it does a disservice to single dads everywhere.

The guy needs help, his daughter perhaps more (as a result), and I apologize for this rant, but it really pissed me off. I don't think he's that swift an actor either, but that's neither here nor there.