Britney Spears: a *GASP* bad mother?

-or- surprised because why?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060208/en_celeb_eo/18314;_ylt=ArPV_kue33.Lc5f4uQp8rLJeW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
from JoeUser Forums
Think back a few years. Michael "Nutjob" Jackson leans over the railing of a hotel balcony in Germany, dangling his small son over the edge. Outrage erupts. The man (very loose application of the term there) just may be unfit to be a parent!

I am sure that those of us with a modicum of common sense say it all and said, "No kidding."

Well, it has happened again. This time the perpetrator is pop princess (aka attention whore) Britney Spears. She was seen "fleeing" paparazzi in her SUV with her infant son on her lap in the front seat. *GASP* Oh, the horror, the horror.

Yeah right.

I am not downplaying what she did by any means. I have three children of my own and they are the most precious gifts I have in this life. I would never willingly do something that endangered their lives, such as drive with them between me and the steering column. Her actions are foolish, selfish and completely inexcusable. But the amazement that the media seems to be expressing over this just boggles my mind.

I think some people may actually be surprised that Britney is a bad mom.

This doesn't make any sense to me. Ever since she came into the spotlight she has exhibited absolutely zero common sense. She doesn't live on Earth, she lives in Britneytopia, a magical land where her rules, well, rule. Like so many celebrities, when it comes to doing the things that many of us normal humans do every day, they just fail. Life in the celebrity bubble doesn't lead itself to being grounded or well rounded. Hollywood doesn't want that. Makes for a boring story. And so we get people who are, on their best day, more than slightly unbalanced.

And we wonder why they make piss-poor parents.
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Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
One thing that my wife just pointed out, Britney's from Louisiana. In that part of the country (rural Hicksville) it's a common sight to see small children carried in arms and toddlers and younger kids allowed to roam free. While that doesn't excuse the behavior (and the blatant flaunting of the law, regardless of her "excuses"), it would seem normal to her.

I mean, come on! Since she hit the scene years ago, she's been nothing but a musical equivalent of the Beverly Hillbillies.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
She should have sense enough to hire around the clock nannies like all the other celebrities and then her mothering skills would never be an issue.
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's amazing that so many people think we should raise a nation of spoiled brats and wimps.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
That she was 'fleeing' from paparrazzi is another completely different issue. It doesn't excuse her from putting her child in potential danger.

It is hardly surprising to hear this story, though. If brains were dynamite, Britney, Jessica Simpson etc., wouldn't have enough to blow their noses.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's amazing that so many people think we should raise a nation of spoiled brats and wimps.


I would make some comment about how it is a shame you weren't carried in a similar fashion when an accident occured, but that just wouldn't be nice. So I won't.

Or is it too late?
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I can't stand Britney Spears anyways, but this story just took the cake. I can't believe that she's trying to justify her actions in her obviously written-by-a-lawyer statement by blaming it all on the paparazzi. Paparazzi are definitely a problem, and many of them do definitely go over the line, but it's becoming way too convenient for celebs to whine "it's all those lousy mean nasty photographers' faults, not mine!" All I could think when I saw the photos is just how close that cute, precious baby was to the airbag. If his crap-for-brains mother had hit another car, even just a tap, the airbag would have exploded, and bye bye to that precious baby. And if her baby had been killed, no doubt the Britster would have blamed all that on the paparazzi as well. But it would have been her fault, completely. In the photos I saw, there were no hordes of photographers pressed up against her car and rocking it back and forth, threatening to tip it over or anything like that. No matter how unnerved she might have been (and personally, I doubt it was as bad as she portrayed it anyways), she should have taken the time to put her child in his car seat and not put his life in danger. She may not be a bad mother pe se, but she's definitely stupid.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
If his crap-for-brains mother had hit another car, even just a tap, the airbag would have exploded, and bye bye to that precious baby. And if her baby had been killed


IF this, IF that. How many of you were injured as a child? How many of you are now brain damaged? All, apparantely.

The government trying to protect people from themselves on the basis of what MIGHT happen is Big Brother in action.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Held to modern standards there were no good parents 100 years ago. OMG, my dad let me sit on his lap when he drove his truck. My grandfather smoked around his kids. Heaven forbid we were SPANKED as children.

I'm sick of this, frankly, and I think people need to mind their friggin business. I don't for a moment believe "it takes a village" and I would prefer the village butt the hell out. We are barely more than unpaid baby-sitters for the state now as it is.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
Now, now. Didn't I teach you better manners?


Yes mom. Sorry.
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
IF this, IF that. How many of you were injured as a child? How many of you are now brain damaged? All, apparantely.


And

Held to modern standards there were no good parents 100 years ago. OMG, my dad let me sit on his lap when he drove his truck. My grandfather smoked around his kids. Heaven forbid we were SPANKED as children.


Well, if you two bothered to actually read my article, you would have realized this wasn't about what Britney did. Rather, it was about how ridiculous it is that anyone is surprised that she is a pretty imcompetent parent. But hey, if missing the point floats your boat, go for it.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
Wow. Baker and I finally agree.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
Wow. Baker and I finally agree.


Yeah. Shame you missed the entire point of my article. But good on ya.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
I didn't miss the point of your article. You're saying she is a bad parent and we shouldn't be surprised. I dunno what really gives you the authority to call her a bad parent. Most people of her ilk would be paying to have someone else raise the child while they are on another continent.

People get off calling he stupid, calling her a hick, calling her a redneck, blah, blah. I think it is a lot of snottiness used to make themselves feel superior. So what if she married someone people don't approve of. How many times have all the "smart" hollywood types been married?
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
How many times have all the "smart" hollywood types been married?


There are smart Hollywood types? Hmm, I must have missed them.

And, frankly, I find it a bit amusing that you suddenly think we all need to have authority to pass judgments on what we see in the world. I can think of more than a few articles of yours in which you pass pretty harsh judgment, with zero authority to back it up. I suppose authority is only important when it is someone else passing the judgment, huh Baker? Your authority must just be implicit.

Right. I can take that seriously.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Hey, she used to be a Mousketeer!
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
No, you're just making an assertion that she is a bad parent. Feel free to point out where I am wrong, but I usually offer some reasons why I think someone is what I accuse them of. According to your standards my parents were bad, inexcusable parents, too. One wonders how the world got by before all these rules were made.

You know, people used to allow children to ride BICYCLES, and WITHOUT HELMETS!!! Before that they even allowed them to ride horses, or so I hear. Pardon a guffaw, but if you think anyone who ever drove a car with a child in their lap is a bad parent, well, you've got high standards.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think the issue is not what used to be OK, but what is considered safe NOW. We have made strides as a society as far as health and medicine and safety go.

Think about car windshields. Way back when if you got in an accident, that glass would rip you to shreds. We have safer glass now that crumbles and doesn't do near as much damage to the human body.

We now understand how valuable carseats and seatbelts are in making an accident survivable. We have the means to keep our children safer during travel in a car. It's reasonable to expect that a good parent would have the baby in a weight and age appropriate backward facing carseat, strapped in properly.

Further, as Jinny pointed out, having a baby's head right there at the steering wheel is a recipe for disaster. Today's vehicles are equipped with air bags. Children and short adults should not be sitting close to the air bags (my boys DO NOT ride in the front seat, period) because they are likely to be decapitated when the air bags deploy in an accident.

Why risk it?

So, I DO think that Britney's choice to drive with a small infant in her lap, unrestrained, reflects either a lack of knowledge about the importance of car safety or apathy about the well-being of her child.

And no, it's not surprising. Britney seems to make plenty of bad life choices. The sad thing is that now those poor choices affect the life of an innocent child.
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
Pardon a guffaw, but if you think anyone who ever drove a car with a child in their lap is a bad parent, well, you've got high standards.


And I understand that. I think Tex said it best: I feel the difference is knowledge and understanding we have now, along with accepted standards. And this is simply the most recent of lots of ridiculous things she has done as a parent.
Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top

Hey, she used to be a Mousketeer!

Wow?  A mouseketeer?  That explains it.  Annette was a better one tho.

Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top
you've got high standards.


I was thinking about this, and I suppose I do have high standards.

Now, I don't say that everyone who has driven with a child in their lap is a bad parent. That would be ridiculous.

But did my parents, as wonderful as they were, do some things that we now know aren't perhaps the best things to do for children? Sure they did. And their parents did the same. And I will do (and have done) some things that future generations will look back on a think "what were they thinking?" And so each generation, with better knowledge, should do better. Generations past didn't really know better, but we do now. All it would take is a big enough bump to set off an air bag, and that would have been it for the infant.

And, if this were the only incident of irresponsible parenting the public has seen from Mrs. Federline, it might not make me pause. But it is only the most recent in a pretty significant string, especially considering the poor little guy is only 4 months old.
Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
Shit happens. Welcome to reality.

Publicity whore Gloria Allred has called this outrageous. 'Nuff said.
Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top

Throughout this article, and Gideon's and the press and the comments, one point has not been made and it appears to be a glaring one.

How do we know Brittany Spears drove with her child in her lap?

Because someone (paparazzi no doubt) was stalking her!  How many pictures, so clear and close up, do we see of all the other moms who do this?  Answer?  none.  Because they are not being stalked.

Fame is a heady experience.  But it does have its price and at times that price can seem unbearable.  This picture shows more about the cretin who was stalking her, than it does about Brittany herself.