Did anyone see Ryan O'Neill on The View? He is such a mess. My heart breaks and YET+

[Signorina]

It's a really good wake up as to why we can't wring our hands or look the other way and why we need to draw a line in the sand with our difficult children. So often, I wonder if I should just look the other way and pretend I don't know or pretend that I am OK with the drug use & subsequent decline in his life. Just to have him in my life. As if I could really look the other way. Yet so many parents can...

Now, I know Ryan and his kids various mothers had a strong family history of dependency and that these kids grew up in a perfect incubator of dysfunctional family, celebrity, affluence, "broken" family (complete with multiple steps/halfs etc,) hyper sexuality and cancer...but MAN o MAN...I do not want to judge -- but maybe just maybe if someone had taken a MORAL stand at some somewhere...and been a grown up. Ryan admits he told his 16 yo daughter (Tatum who didn't like Farrah) that Farrah could give him things that Tatum couldn't (sex) and that's why he was choosing Farrah over Tatum. That may explain why she married so young.

I feel for Tatum and Redmond the most I guess. Neither of them stood a chance. he said his eldest had a good mom (I am not sure of his name - they are not in touch, he has 4 kids, 3 mamas) and that despite his bad influence on Tatum; her mother would've been a worse influence and that he sees Redmond (in Court ordered rehab) and Griffin (in prison) when he has "visitation." And he and Tatum are in touch now because he is sick and she likes to mother him.

Joy Behar and Barb really ripped into him as being the common factor in 4 kids who are train wrecks. And Barbara basically told him it wasn't too late to get his act together and redeem his relationships with his children. He is pretty ill and comes across as very sorry for himself.

wOw. Don't think I will read his book though...I feel like it would make me angry.

Also, on the subject of mainstream media and dependency - last week GMA aired 1970's sitcom reunions and had the cast of One Day at a Time. I thought the exchange between Mackenzie Phillips (admitted addict) and Valerie Bertinelli was very interesting as were these comments (about Mackenzie) by Bonnie Franklin

Grappling with this and substance abuse while working on 'One Day at a Time,' Phillipswas fired from the show twice.'She got clean…and then she came back and she was still using again,' Franklin said.

Franklin said that she didn't fight for Phillips to remain on the show when producers fired her twice. "Bonnie said, 'We're not going to keep putting money in her pocket for her to go out and kill herself,"' Phillips remembered

Looking back, Phillips recognizes that her co-stars always acted out of love.'These people loved me until I was able to love myself and when I wasn't able to love myself they still loved me,' Phillips said. 'They are the kindest group of people you could want.'

While Phillips battled her addictions, Bertinelli became a teen sensation.'Valerie is a testament to what can happen in this industry if you have the proper kind of parenting behind you,' Phillips said. 'You can survive.''My job wasn't any more important than my brother's football practice,' Bertinelli said. 'They were all one and the same.'​

 

[buddy]

I watched the reality show that he and Tatum did. She broke my heart and while I felt for him at times, he mostly made me mad. He is so explosive and such a difficult child adult. She truly was trying to mend things and he would get so awful to her, then she would try and try again. She is such a mess and she accepts her responsibility in that but of course it is her crazy upbringing that brought her to those places.

It was a good show, very real...not like many of them, he did not come off as the devil or good guy, just real and sad.

 

[DDD]

I watched that series also. To me it was amazing that Tatum turned out so well. DDD

 

[Tiredof33]

I didn't see that one but I watched an interview he did after Farrah's death, he is sad to me too. These kids with these far out parents don't really seem to stand a chance.

Mackensie and Bertinelli were on Oprah together and talked about doing drugs together during the show years ago. Mackensie talked about sleeping with her dad for years and getting an abortion because she wasn't sure if the baby was his or not. About all of the drugs and sex with Mike Jagger and saying she came forward because she knew the consentual sex with her father was more common than people want to believe.

I think some of the difficult child celebs just love the attention and drama and will say and do anything to stay in the media.