Posted on 12/15/2004 1:35:16 PM PST by Lorianne
LOS ANGELES -- U.S. cable's Spike TV examines the rewards of being a father in a two-hour special "True Dads with Bruce Willis."
The special, hosted by actor and father of three Bruce Willis, is scheduled for Friday at 9 p.m. EST/PST.
"Today's men are looking for new role models about how to be a dad -- you can't just come home and watch TV anymore," says Albie Hecht, president of Spike TV. "According to research from Spike TV's recent nationwide study of men, we found that nearly half of the men surveyed said they don't spend as much time as they would like with their kids -- we hope this documentary will help to inspire a new generation of fathers."
One out of every four U.S. homes has no father.
The show examines fatherhood from the perspective of six dads via their personal stories and experiences, including: NASCAR's Kerry Earnhardt; Dr. Jonathan Clark, husband of late astronaut Laurel Clark who was killed in the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy; and Joseph Jones, a one-time heroin addict and deadbeat dad.
There are too many boys who only know how to be a bad mother rather than a good father.
How about the fact that all self help TV and broadcast television is basically for women. Even spike is pretty weak when it comes to purposed television for men.
How many children still live in the same house as dad?
Bruce is the one who left Demi after shacking up with Liv Tyler while filming Armegeddon. Not exactly Father of the Year material, committing adultery and all that.
Case in point: In the course of some consulting work, my husband has been dealing with a VP of a major international company. A year or so ago he went through a divorce; his wife and kids live in a 4,000 square foot house, and he has been living in a one-bedroom apartment. After a year, he has FINALLY gotten to the point where he can begin putting aside money for savings; he made the mistake of mentioning it to one of his kids, who told his ex-wife, and now she is taking him back to court to get more money. So now his savings have to pay his attorney.
It's only anecdotal evidence, I know, but time and time and time again I have seen, known, witnessed, men whose wives divorced them for no real reason (no cheating, no abuse, no drug problems), except that these women want to "find themselves." The men have to pay SO MUCH in child support that they are left destitute -- too destitute to be able to do much with their kids on the every-other-weekend they can see them. They can't afford a place big enough for the kids to have their own rooms when they're there.
Enforcement of visitation and other issues is not an option -- again, anecdotal evidence, but I have witnessed the same ol' thing many times with different fathers. A vindictive mom throws roadblocks up for visitation: "Johnny can't be there this weekend because we made other plans," she says. In order to enforce his right to see his children, the father has to PAY an attorney to pursue it, and often as not the dad simply CANNOT afford it. Or, as in our case, stipulation was that my husband's ex was to pay for half of the transporation costs for visitation (she took the kids and moved out of state).
Fine and dandy on paper, but we never saw a dime from her in reimbursements for her half of the kids' plane tickets -- many times, in fact, the day before the kids were scheduled to fly out, husband would call them only to hear: "Gee, dad, we're not going to make it," and ex would tell him, "Sorry! I can't force them to do something they don't want to do!"
Sure, we could have had it "enforced," but to do so would have had to pay so much in fees to our attorney that we would have lost money on the deal. As it was, we paid $10,000 one year in fees to our attorney to fend off the woman's ploys to get yet more money from my husband. She lost, but we still had to pay the $10,000 to our lawyer PLUS another $1000 to hers, per judge's orders.
Onlookers may say, "Yeah, but that's only money." I say, it's more than money, it's the message being sent to the kids, which is: Mom is in charge, dad has no authority, and the only thing he's really good for or responsible for, is money.
Bottom line: it gives girls unrealistic and shallow expectations of men overall, and gives boys a very poor example of what fatherhood and manhood is all about.
A suggested solution: change child support laws to put a cap on the amount a custodial parent can get for support of the kids. It would take away a lot of incentive for getting divorced.
This is nonsense. Bruce Willis is no one to be held up as a role model for fathers.
Liv Tyler is pretty hot.
I have a word I like to use to describe women who marry a man to have children, divorce him, and use the state to extort money from him:
"WHORES"
By definition, a prostitute is anyone who uses sex as a means for financial gain. And a turd by any other name still smells as foul.
Female mid-life crisis.
There are a lot of Great Dad's around, always have been, maybe we could hear about them for a change.
LOL
DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS UNTIL MINUTES AGO.
GREAT SHOW. GOTTA GET COPIES FOR MY PSYCH CLASSES.
I hope Bruce gets tons of praise for this and ends up giving copies out to everyone who can't afford one.
Fantastic show.
No.
I'd put it this way.
Watch TRUE DADS 100 times. Shut off all the other TV shows and spend time with your kids.
The BEST thing a dad can do for their kids is
TO LOVE GOD WHOLLY--SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND ALL ELSE WILL BE ADDED.
2--2nd best thing would be to LOVE THEIR MOTHER AS NO OTHER WOMAN OR ADULT.
3--3rd BEST thing would be to love his kids more than life itself.
GIVEN THE POVERTY OF GOOD POSITIVE QUALITY SUBSTANTIVE TV FOR DADS
I THINK WE NEED TO PUSH AND CHEER EVERY EXAMPLE WE CAN.
Pretty much agree.
I wouldn't want to hold him up as a paragon example of a dad. Maybe that's one reason he has done this show.
But I sure give him credit for doing the show and doing it well.
I give him that. He earned that.
I agree.
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