A Very Good Reason To Stop Watching Dr Phil

Now anyone who reads my hubs is very familiar with my relaxed, balanced style of writing. It's pretty hard to ruffle these feathers. This one time a lady pushed in front of me at the ATM on a hot summer's day, proceeded to jam it up with her broken bank card whilst muttering racial epithets, and then stood on my foot and smudged my puma and I didn't even say anything, in fact, I presented my other puma for smudging, that's how mellow I am.

But when Dr Phil came out and said that Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears were lucky to have a mama like Lynn Spears, well, it all got a little too much. Unless the comment was taken out of context (it wasn't) and he was actually comparing Lynn Spears with the woman who baked her baby in the oven, Dr Phil has clearly lost his mind.

Before I get too far off in my ranting, here is the offending quote alleged to have fallen from the lips of Dr Phil:

"We know the Spears family, particularly the parents. An asset that Britney and Jamie Lynn both have is a great and dedicated mother. Lynne has her feet squarely and solidly on the ground. I talked to Lynne yesterday and she said they´re turning to prayer, asked that I pray for them. That´s how they´re going to get through it."

This from the man who famously said "You can't change what you don't acknowledge." Well how about acknowledging the fact that Lynn Spears clearly lead two teenage daughters down the same hellish path of fame at any price? How about acknowledging that not all 16 year olds end up pregnant, and if they do, it has a great deal to do with the parents? How about acknowledging that both Britney and Jamie Lynn have clearly been taught that nothing matters except getting attention and have locked themselves into an attention seeking battle that saw Britney seeing Jamie Lynn's teenage pregnancy and raising it one illicit night with a member of the paparazzi and one bra less public outing?

It's time to get real, Dr Phil. Having ridden Oprah's coattails to success is one thing, but coming out in support of women who have effectively pimped their children out to an industry that has done nothing to safeguard their wellbeing and instead has left them washed up wrecks on the pages of the major tabloids, well that's quite another. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch him deliver that down home advice to neurotic southern housewives who insist on crocheting their children's clothes, or overweight people struggling to come to terms with the concept that more food equals more calories anymore. The illusion is shattered. Only a complete moron could look at the woman reponsible for producing Britney and Jamie Lynn and say that she's a good mother.

And before you start claiming that it isn't her fault, that it happens to all celebrity kids, look again. Look at Christina Aguilera, married, sane and with a baby on the way. Look at Mandy Moore, look at Hilary Duff. It is possible to raise young women responsibly even when they are both talented and famous.

It's when you stop parenting and start leeching that the trouble starts.