Saturday, April 21, 2007

Wrong Call

Hollywood is always a mecca for good stories that demonstrate what you shouldn't do during a divorce and custody battle. The latest bizarre story involves a nasty phone message that Alec Baldwin left for his 11 year old daughter. The phone call was brought to a judge and because of the content, a Judge temporarily terminated his visitation rights. There are many issues involved in this case starting with the inability of the parties to get along and foster a loving relationship between their daughter and the other party. The second issue is that a child is just that, a child, and they should not be spoken to in a way that can be hurtful and demeaning, especially when the fate of your visitation rights rests in the hands of a judge. The last issue is that of the leak of the phone message to the public which I see as nothing more than a hurtful deliberate act to kick someone when they are already down. Child custody disputes are private, unique and delicate and need to be handed in such a way by the parties so that the child does not feel the need to choose sides and will not ever put in the middle of whatever issues the couple has with one another. I am only speculating about what may have caused such an outburst by Mr. Baldwin, but I suspect it had a lot to do with his feelings towards his ex-wife and not his daughter.

If you would like to read the story about the phone call that has caused all this trouble for Mr. Baldwin, see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002215.html?hpid=sec-artsliving

No comments: