Bill Watt’s Blog

I was watching The Real World Denver this weekend and one of the guys gets arrested. Sure, the production and all the commercials makes you think the guy gets arrested for abusing his girlfriend but in the end it is for public urination and disturbing the peace.

The pain this guy expresses about how he’s going to be portrayed to the public is real. The fact that he drank too much and was in the wrong with his girlfriend is also real. But the “best” part of the whole show was how he owned up to it and called to prepare his family for what was about to be public knowledge.

His father was awesome. The lecture he dished out was what everyone in that position should do and the way his son took it was also spot on. Too often people come out with this, “My child right or wrong!” attitude which isn’t logically or helpful. Yes, love your child but when they do something wrong you need to do what is right. The thing that comes to mind is always the guy that kills someone and the family acts like their baby couldn’t ever have committed such a crime. I’ve seen a few folks come out and declare their sorrow and remore for those hurt by their family member but sadly those instances are the minority.

Anyway- in this case the father called it like it was. The hardest part (in my opinion) was when the father said, “This is always going to be with you” and then started role playing the future. “Mr Senator, what’s this on your record? Mr President, can you tell us about this incident in 2007?” It was a perfect encapsulation of the hope and dissapointment of a parent. Listening to his dad’s dissapointment appeared to hit that guy to the core.

Parenting scored one on this reality episode.