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  • » Name: Amanda Bassa
  • » Location: VA
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The Undisputed Truth

Viewing Posts Tagged "Irv Gotti"   View All

So, Good Parenting is the Thing to Do Now?


November 05, 2007 | Tags: parenting, Irv Gotti

“I don’t really like to have cameras around when I do my positive things, because it’s not a gimmick. It’s not a problem to me when [the media doesn’t] cover it or bring it to light. I know that the Man upstairs sees all the good that I do,”  -Snoop Dogg while speaking at a press junket attended by HipHopDX. (Read the full story at http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.5912/title.snoop-dogg-defends-hip-hop-fatherhood-announces-album)

Ah, the irony of some things. I was minding my own business Sunday evening, waking up from a midnight nap (yeah, I take naps at midnight, get over it), when suddenly I was flooded with something. Images of it, the sound of it, even a little anger at it.

Parenting.

Interestingly, although stating that he doesn’t prefers to not handle his positive business on camera, Snoop has been mentioning his good deeds pretty frequently as of late. And he’s not the only one. Let’s keep this strictly to parenting though. I mentioned in a recent post that I was watching Run’s House on MTV. There’s that parenting again. Then there’s Irv Gotti’s new show on VH1. It’s like proving to the world that you can raise a family is the thing to do these days. Although I commend these people for being able to raise their families, and for dedicating time, effort, and love into doing so, there’s still something about it that bothers me a little bit. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s the fact that at a lot of these kids’ ages they probably are happy to get on TV, but later in their lives they may regret having all of their business out in public like that. Go figure. But this leads me to another point.

There has been an argument about parenthood that tends to get to me. People are claiming that being a good parent will save your kids’ futures. This may not be a new argument, but I’ve been hearing it a lot lately; interestingly as a combat to the ills that hip hop supposedly causes the youth. There’s one thing to be said about neglecting your parenting responsibilities altogether though, like skipping out on child support payments or not making the effort to spend time with your kids. Yeah, that makes a difference. I get that. But at the same time, being the ideal version of a parent and doing everything you’re “supposed” to do (I’m a firm believer that there’s no one way to be a good parent) doesn’t always work.

For instance, I have two of the best parents a girl could ask for. I love them to death. Sure, we’re not perfect and surely some aspects of the family relationship could be improved upon (as is the case with damn near every family), but we make it work. I’m just thankful that they’re there. But neither of them ever turned their backs on me. They always made an effort to instill good values into my mind, and to keep me headed down a righteous path. I mean, they really honestly tried. You know what though? I still screwed up. I’ll admit it. They don’t even know about some of the stuff I ended up pulling off, although with time I let my mom in on some of it now that it’s far enough behind me that we can both kick back and laugh about it instead of me catching an ass beating for the things I did. The fact is though, my parents did the best job they could raising me, and I think they did wonderfully (even though they’ll argue they’re not done yet), but it didn’t save me from making my own mistakes, heading down the wrong paths, and learning lessons through experience that they had already tried to warn me about.

When it comes down to it, kids will be kids. These rappers’ children aren’t guaranteed to turn out any better or worse than anybody else’s kids, no matter what sort of effort they put into teaching them all the right lessons and what not. The reason people think that the kids are doing worse lately is because there’s more stuff for them to get into that will potentially ruin them. New drugs are on the market, certain ones are becoming easier to get, gangs are thriving, and sex is always appealing. Instead of trying to get the parents to put more effort into doing the job that a lot of them are honestly already doing pretty well, somebody should try putting more effort into combating the evils that suck the kids in and lead them towards a grim future. Sure, it’s not an easy battle, but as long as the stuff is out there for the kids to do, they’ll always have a natural curiosity about it – no matter how many times you tell them “don’t do that shit”. Shit, some kids may listen to their parents and never do anything wrong. But some won’t. I was one of those. But I sure as hell don’t blame my parents for my mistakes – that was all me. And I think it’s time that good parents who had kids that just ended up screwing up anyway stop catching the unnecessary blame. They tried, and that’s all that matters.


The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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