Filed under: Celebrity kids, Television, Child Custody, In the News, Celebrity parents behaving badly
Over the past few days, stories about Britney Spears have dominated the news. The latest development is that visitation has been suspended and she has been committed to the hospital. I will get this out of the way now. I feel sorry for her. I am not making excuses for her because I realize that her behavior is compounding the problem, but I cannot help but feel sympathy for her and her situation.I have been through a custody trial. I have spent months, running into years, with people watching my every move and documenting everything I did. I have had everything I have ever said or written twisted around to make me look terrible. I cannot even imagine what it must be like when you get to see all of that documented in the tabloids every day and be the butt of every joke on late night talk shows.
I know that I have no idea what she's thinking or what motivates her actions, but I can sympathize with the constant stress of losing your children. Stress makes you do crazy things. If cameras had been following me around during those awful months I know I would have done more than shave my head and hold a standoff with police. If you have not been through this experience, I think it is impossible to truly explain how it feels. My hair fell out, I cracked two teeth from night grinding and I repainted one of the walls in my house black. I have no explanation for my behavior and when people ask me to sum up that period, I just shake my head. There were times I went so long without sleep that I lost my short-term memory.
What worries me more is that no one seems to be stepping in and doing something to help Britney. There seems to be a lot of fires being extinguished, but no smoke alarms being installed.
Before I join the torch carrying crowd, exclaiming, "Britney is a horrible mother and deserves to never see those children again," all I have to do is pull out my $7,000 dentist bill that I finally paid off or walk into the extra bedroom and look at the black wall. Then I thank my lucky stars that it's not all documented in the tabloids. Hopefully, other mothers can look at her with a little bit of compassion right now, if only for the sake of Sean Preston and Jayden James and hope that she starts getting the help she needs to save her visitation rights with those children.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
