Did anyone watch Dr. Phil topic "Teens out of control" Geez!

DDD

Well-Known Member
The family consisted of Mom, SD and 15 or 16 year old alledged out of control teen. OMG! The Dr. Phil camera crew visited the family home to tape the dysfunction prior to the show. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. The GFGmom (yep, reminded me of my daughter) spewed angry comments at the kid constantly. Almost all statements incuded the four letter word we aren't allowed to use here. "Leave me to x alone. You are an xing loser. Shut up, you xer. Get out of my sight. Why don't you xing leave our house." It was back to back to back...and she KNEW she was being filmed. Wouldn't you at least pretend to be half way normal??

On the show the family was attractive but once the clip was shown Dr. Phil "politely" confronted her and asked "do you see where the problem is in your family?" He had his wife come on stage and sit next to the boy for comfort. The bottom line is, of course, that the family is being sent to a program designed to help.

I did have to laugh at one point. Dr. Phil had Robin comment on healthy family interactions. When she said "I have never raised my voice with out children nor have I ever shown them anything but a loving smiling face". That's wild. I've always thought I was a low key, non-violent parent but I sure as heck have lost my temper a few times and absolutely have not kept a loving smiling face. The early years of parenting were down right too hard for me, lol. I did better as I matured. DDD
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
If Robin managed to parent her boys with a constant loving smiling face I'll keel over right now. Gimme a break. What a load of utter bull hockey. Now I had oodles of patience and worked hard not to raise my voice.......and I can honestly say I never once used a derogatory term (name calling of any sort) but a parent is only human and even with a easy child there are going to be situations where you lose your temper. ugh Besides, I wanna see her get her point across that she is very unhappy with something her kids did with a huge smile on her face. Let's get realistic here.

The only thing that bothers me with her statement is there are going to be parents out there who buy that line of bull and attempt to imitate it.

I caught part of one show.........the mom was an obvious over the top difficult child and the dad had had enough. I couldn't believe what the heck they filmed because cps should have been called in and those children removed before the show was even done. in my opinion (and since dr. phil is a therapist he's a mandatory reporter) Once in a while I'll catch his show when there is nothing else on and the internet isn't working. He draws it out too much for me......to drama involved for the audience ect. Gets old.
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Wow. Any chance I can watch it on the internet or as a rerun? Sorry I missed that one. There is something seriously wrong with that mom. No wonder the kid is messed up. As for Robin, either she's delusional or using the term "never" VERY loosely or is a SAINT.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I missed that one but saw the one from the day before with the family with the 26-year-old daughter who was an addict. It had torn the family apart. Watching it was hard because I saw things that reflected our own family although my difficult child actually looked pretty good compared with the difficult child on the show.

It did show how everyone in the family was focused on the problem child to the expense of the relationships with the healthy children. The saddest part was the 3-year-old son of the addict. The parents of the difficult child were raising the boy and were actually discussing putting him up for adoption. I couldn't believe that they would even consider it at this point. I think it would have been a good option as a newborn but now they would be taking him from the only people that he knew and loved and sending him off to live with another family. I hope that Dr. Phil can help the difficult child get her life together for the little boy's sake.

I hate addiction.

~Kathy
 

buddy

New Member
I think there is a huge difference too (not saying that this is what Robin was talking about but ...) between raising your voice or even yelling and SCREAMING at your child. I think screaming is out of control stuff. I actually have done that a couple of times and I figured out that the very next day I got my period and it had nothing to do with Q at all. Hasn't happened for years but I remember the way it felt, so out of control and so sick of myself.

It is just not normal or appropriate to with a smile on your face and a happy tone say... no running in the middle of the street honey, that car is about to run over you!

seriously??? and I defy Robin to raise a difficult child without raising her voice or making sure her facial expression matched the seriousness of the situation.
 

klmno

Active Member
I can't imagine anyone raising any kid, even a typical teen, to adulthood and not crossing a line when tempers flare at some point. I don't mean abusive behavior but raising a voice or using a bad choice of words that were regretted later. We're only human, after all.

As far as this show, I didn't see it but saw one in the past that was similar- except that one was a father (or step-father) who verbally trashed the teen girl repetitively. It does effect the whole fammily- but I think it takes people who really 'get it' to help these families- people getting right out of college who think they know it all and are really wanna-be tdocs arren't qualified enough to halp more than cause more damage, in my humble opinion. I think Dr P does try to get the best help for these families, though. His show has become so commercialized and he's giving into too much of the ratings game, in my humble opinion, the past year or so that I hardly wattch him anymore.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Kathy, I saw the one too where the grandparents were raising the three year old son of their addicted daughter. And if I'm right, they have been raising him since birth? I can't even believe that they are considering putting him up for adoption! OMG! How could they do that? Nobody really plans on having to raise their grandchildren ... but still! This is just one little boy, not a whole house full of kids, just one little boy who loves them and counts on them to take care of him! Sure, it's more difficult to raise a child in your 50's or 60's than it is in your 20's or 30's. But neither one of them are invalids or seem to be incapacitated in any way, they both look active and healthy enough, and they don't seem to be living in poverty! I keep thinking of my own grandson who is 2-1/2 now. And if something unthinkable ever happened where he could no longer live with his parents ... I would fight tigers for that little boy! And I would do my level best to raise him well and with love and to provide for him, just like I did with my own children. The thought of putting him up for adoption with strangers because he might complicate my life and make things a little more difficult for me is just OBSCENE!
 
B

Bunny

Guest
No, Janet. This was a different girl.

I agree that this child should not be put up for adoption at this point. He already knows that his mother is not there, so now you want to take away from him the only family that he's ever known? It's not the right thing to do, and I think deep down the family knows that. Even the other two kids said that they don't think that's the right thing. I do feel badly for the little boy, though.
 

klmno

Active Member
I didn't watch that particular show but I can't help but wonder if the idea of adoption is really a "threat" to the mom to get her act together. Being that most of the families are highly dysfunctional in situations like that, I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that the grands or whomever are using that as a means to try to control the difficult child.
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
Kathy I saw yesterday's show too. Whenever I see those shows it's almost too hard to watch because of the similarities. I did not see today's show yet but have it taped so I will watch. I'm not sure Robin would be able to raise a difficult child without raising her voice either, but I have no doubt she is telling the truth about raising her boys. I have always found her to be incredibly graceful and wished I could be like her.

Nancy
 
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