A nasty phone call from Alec Baldwin
 

I am talking about the message he left on his daughter's phone. He can whine about losing his temper in the moment but get real. What normal person does that to their child.

I agree. The guy is slime. However, not to be rude, this topic has been posted before.

http://www.shreveport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1204

SmartAlec Bald-Twin is a talentless schmoe. He should be abused with a cattleprod until he cries "uncle"!

Yep! We toasted him here on the forum before - still agree that he needs some serious parenting classes.

Yep, because people who verbally scolds their children instead of beating the crap out of them need psycho therapy, right?

Let me ask you people that have children a question. Exactly how do YOU discipline your own children if you consider scolding them to be over the top? Note I DID NOT ask how you teach them right from wrong, I asked how you discipline them.

BTW, keep in mind that you can spank or ground a child that doesn't live with you.....I've yet to see a 10 mile belt.

There is a balance between extremes, BS. You can spank without "beating the crap" out of a child. You can scold without using words that are abusive. The point of discipline is teaching a child not to repeat a behavior. Punishment should fit the crime.

An example - if my 11 year old son leave his dirty laundry on the floor repeatedly, he has to do all the laundry for a week. That's discipline - and teaching a skill at the same time.

No spanking or scolding involved. He's more responsible and has laundry skills, too. :)

You can't spank a child that doesn't live with you, period. How are you going to get your hands on them?

BTW, if your son lived with his dad (like Alec's daughter lives with her Mom) how would you make him to do laundry for a week? Would the child only be punished when visiting you? Yeah, that's going to improve the relationship with your near teen son dramatically, right?

Edit:
And what if your son tells you no, he's not going to do the laundry for a week? All we know is that Alec's daughter missed an appointment, not if it was accidental or intentional....

Physical punishment should be used .........
 

when a child is old enough to understand and not after they go through puberty. Discipline is consistency and consistency is discipline. I was blessed with three good kids I play the bad cop and my wife plays the good cop. Very few spankings were needed not to say they did not get in trouble but I would choose a good talking to with out cursing but still in their face and then take away the things they like to do. Hard love means caring enough to make a stand every time they step out of line and that takes much work on the parents part. I would not know what to do with a child that is a young adult that never understood the rules to start with. I guess a child therapist
would be next ?? not sure on that one. Alec is not one of my favorite people so any comment on him would be bias from me. I am sure Kim has her problems too.

Well I can say that we face the Alec Baldwin problem in our house on a daily basis. I have a step son who's mother does not ever has never in 12 years EVER adhered to the court ordered custody arrangement. She has never supported his father's right to a relationship with his son unless it is on her terms. She has interferred, manipulated, and done everything imaginable at every opportunity she can. This is a professional woman (think medical degree) with a history that would make all of your heads spin if I laid it all out for you. In the twelve years of this I can honestly say we have tried it all in order to be a part of this child's life. Her home is a "no rules" house, totally free spirit. Our home has rules, my children are disciplines when needed (not physically), must take baths, they do go to church, they must do homework, they must treat others with respect, they are not allowed to watch just anything on TV, etc. I think you might get the idea here. So present day, he hates being here, he's been taught to hate being here because we have rules and he just can't come and go at the age of 16 and do as he pleases. His mother will lie about his whereabouts, his current use of illegal drugs, the grades on his report card, etc.

I am saying all of this because I understand after having watched my husband endure all of this with his child how a parent can truly get pushed to a breaking point. Now Alec Baldwin went absolutely way too far with his language to his daughter and should never have spoken to her in the manner he did. I do feel for him though. Divorce is hard enough on a child but when one parent is interferring with the rights and relationship of the other parent it can be devastating and extremely frustrating. Yes, you can always turn to the court system, but have you tried that lately? It is a ridiculous. My step son's mother was in drug rehab (and it wasn't her first trip through) at one point and in our custody and we were ordered to still continue to pay her child support AND to turn custody back over to her as soon as she left rehab. Go figure that. Battling in court with the other parents often does more harm to the child than good because one parent will often take it out on the child in all sorts of various forms.

I say all of this because I would like for you all to try and be somewhat understanding of Alec's situation. He's not in an easy place and probably has just gotten to the point after years of the battle where he's at his wits end. Let's hope that he gets help for the anger which is what he needs and gets resolution to the custody/visitation problem for the sake of the child.

Tbelle brings up some interesting points. Personally when I first heard this bit of news and heard the recording.. I immediately said 'Baldwin' was a freaking maniac... PERIOD.

And as easy a going person as I am.. as mild mannered as I usually am.. God forbid, the media should get ahold of some of my RANTS that I've gone on with.. in my almost 20 years of marriage and the raising of my now two teenage sons. I imagine there's been a time or two I've been drivin' to the point of sounding like a mad man. and I would argue there's probabably a few of us around here who could say the same..

With that in mind.. I'll still say Baldwin sounded like a freaking mad man and a lunatic.. but I sure the heck don't know the REST OF THE STORY..

I do want to answer Brain's question about discipline. I don't really have to spank at my house. I have had to when my two oldest were younger but it wasn't often and was never a beating. Discipline is just as Sheba says it should involve teaching. There should be a consequence to the negative behavior and also a good. With my twelve year old discipline often just simply involves a conversation and he gets it immediately. He's just that kind of child. My eighteen year old has to lose the car, lose the cell phone, and be threatened with the death penalty before he learns. He's that kind of child. Their sister kind of falls more in the middle. We give a consequence to the negative and then reward them with an "Atta boy or girl" when they've done what we've asked. They are never 'bought' which is a problem I often see in homes today. Now for my step son there is no discipline. He can even come here and do something and there is no discipline. You can say something to him, but he doesn't care because at the end of the day he'll just be going home. He's smashed literally a $1,500 laptop we gave him for Christmas. His mother knew and helped hide the fact until we pressed really hard about the whereabouts of the laptop. Finally he told me what he did to it but has yet to apologize to his father, he was never disciplined by his mother and to me it happened at her house she should be the one, and he truly sees nothing wrong with what he did. It's hard at best to discipline a child who has two homes. It could be done though under good circumstances.

The key to disciplining your children is a calm head and logic.

I agree with East Tbelle on the calm headed approach. Can't qoute her b\c it would take the enitre page. Wow...East Tx, you must have a lot of time on your hands...not one for brevity - huh? I will say that children up to a centain age are incapable of logical thinking...that's just part of normal develpoment!

LOL yes Tbelle you are correct again.. I have two teenage boys, different as night and day. The younger one, has ALWAYS seemed to "get it". If I ever had to get onto him about something, he's very quick with the "yes sir" and that he "understands". The older one however, was always quick with the "yea but, yea but blah blah blah" :)

Latenight, I don't know about yours but my oldest son will argue just for the sake of arguing. He's the biggest challenge in the house. The horses are not even as stubborn as he is! You have to beat him, figuratively of course, over the head with a brick to get him to understand anything. He is 18 right now and thinks he knows it all which is his greatest problem. I am looking forward to the day that he really begins to lighten up a little.

I never have had to deal with boys. I have close friends that do and I could see where they want to kick against the pricks. My wife thinks if we would have had boys I would have been to hard on them :confused: I will never know at this point but a son is a son till he takes a wife and a daughter is a daughter all her life :clap: they will come see you in the "home" if and when you get there.

Why has everyone immediately discounted the possibility that his daughter is, in fact, a total *****?

I think your choice of word to describe her is a quite harsh. I do think that at this point though there is a good chance that she has probably become quite "coached" by her mother and her behavior is probably a direction reflection of 1: trying to please her mother 2: believing everything she has probably heard her mother say about her father.

It's the nature of the beast in the divorce cases such as these and it leaves the father in a horrible place.

If I were a bettin' man I'd put big money on the idea of all three people being completely horrible.

Alec Baldwin is an excellent actor. He is also, by far, the best SNL host ever. Beyond that, however, everything I hear or read about him indicates he's not much of a human being. Kim Basinger isn't even a good actress. L.A. Confidential was an excellent film, but she was, at best, mediocre. How did she win an Oscar for that? I don't know much about her personal life other than the fact that she once found Alec Baldwin desirable enough to marry and thought he was worthy of having children, so I'd wager she's not exactly mother of the year, either.

Put those two personalities in a genetic blender and you're bound to produce a crappy kid, especially if it gets raised by those two.

Kim Basingers best roll was in last dance with Mary Jane :laugh:

Alec's daughter is 11. Still young enough for spanking to be effective, except, she doesn't live with her Dad.
If I understand the situation correctly, the daughter wasn't there to receive a planned phone call from her father. Now I don't claim to know the circumstances surrounding her missed appointment, but how is Alec to have a conversation with his if he can't even get in touch with her AND his ex may be a large contributing factor in the problem just like she is in your life.
So basically you've done nothing to this child for destroying a $1,500 computer?

You know there is a difference between spanking a child and whipping his ass. Maybe you guys should consider trying the latter......because despite your best intentions, what the child IS learning is that there aren't any significant consequences at Dad's house for anything he does. Consequently, I bet his behavior has gotten progressively worse, right? Started with breaking curfew, maybe talking back, now we're destroying $1,500 computers with no obvious signs of remorse or even an apology.

And this Baldwin thing surprises people? C'mon, that family is not "normal" and therefore how can you expect rational behavior. Children of divorce have issues...yes children can be well adjusted from divorced families but often there is a lot of baggage that's being carried. Then factor in the parents who sometimes are more childish than the kids!

Sometimes ?? It is the parents that came first then the child and the parents owe it to there child to place the child first not their own personal gain. Money, power, fame and divorce :nono: It is called the American step family and it is passing it on to the next generation. I am not against divorce if it needs to be it needs to be but the parents at that point have even more responsibility for their child's well being. That starts with no mind games as Kim and Alec using the child as the pawn :nono:

There are situations where divorce is your only option. As in when a husband abuses a spouse, or say a husband cheats on a wife then certainly the wife has no option but to divorce. The responsibility for the children who has divorced parents becomes far greater at this point to ensure their mental and physical well being. To give them a great balance it does take both of the parents totally laying aside their differences and giving their best efforts at raising the children even though you are doing it with two different homes. It can be done but more often than not the parents forget, as in our case, to put the children first. My step son is the victim of one parent carrying the anger torch forever and letting it stand in the way of her son's well being. Also her mental baggage has now become his baggage and demons as well. Brain, he is not my child, I don't get the option of disciplining him. He would already have a sore butt that he would not be able to sit on for years for destroying a computer. This is one of the problems here that we face and probably Alec Baldwin as well. Discipline the child and all hell breaks lose with the other parent. The other parent does not agree with any kind of discipline so if you try to then your phone calls go unanswered for weeks on end. See how it goes?

This woman's logic Brain goes like this...she told me one time a few years ago that he was talking back to her. I told her that when my children talked back to me I put Tabasco on their tongues and made them hold it out for a minute. It only took my daughter one time to learn not to talk back, the middle child twice, and the youngest has never after watching the oldest two take the punishment. She called this "corporal punishment", stated she didn't believe in that kind of punishment, and her son better not ever be punished that way by me or ELSE! Well, he's never talked back to me because he knows better for one and I've told him I am not scared of the or ELSE.

I tell you all of this Brain because you need to understand or I'd like you to know what some of these people like Alec and my husband have to go through with the other parent and why perhaps they do lose their temper. Again, I make no excuses for him he was wrong, but I do understand his frustration.

The one thing I would like to know is why have they been battling over custody for 5 years. Good grief settle it. I agree at 12 she shouldn't be call a *****.

Well that's really something you and your husband should discuss. I can only assume a $1500 gift came from both of you, and if you're expected to provide for the child then the child should be expected to obey you, or MADE to obey you as the case may be.

Again, that's between you and her. If you are expected to provide for the child then he should be expected to obey you regardless of you being his biological or step mother.
Ummm, I think you've misinterpreted my opinion of the matter. I got the asswhipping, the talking to, AND grounded. Alec's kid got of light and I'm ashamed that this story passes for news....

Oh, Brain you should know me well enough by now to know I have dealt with the little brat!!! He's had to wash his Daddy's truck every weekend he has been over and we have a very large yard that requires a lot of raking! I have found my ways to punish him. City boys don't like to rake and perform hard labor! These are not the ways I really want to do the discipline and not the ways I would do it if one of mine had ruined a computer but then again mine would never do such. My birth children have better respect for the things given to them than to do such.

Furthermore, when I have issues with the mom I go straight to the source. I believe the best way to deal with a matter regarding the boy is straightforward and like an adult in a calm, cool manner. The only problem is getting met half way.

I know you don't see it as newsworthy but personally I would like to see some good come from it. I would like attention brought to the issues that fathers like my husband face so that perhaps positive change can come for them.

Way to go Belle. That is so true

Well from my very limited glimpse into this drama, it sounds like you guys are stuck in a vicious cycle. You buy him something nice for Christmas, he tears it up because he's mad at you guys because he's punished every time he comes over and made to wash the truck or rake the yard because of something he's done before.

Now I am NOT telling you how to raise your children, but a belt instills fear, not anger. Therefore it is vastly more affective at quelling problems with problematic children than washing the truck.

Never been there, but I understand what you are saying....
Maybe, but it should at least be billed as entertainment, not headline news. This should be on ET, not CNN.

Note previous posts and their length...just my point lots of baggage and lots of issues.

Long posts don't equate with lots of issues and baggage. Maybe it's a long story and a long discussion?????????????????? Yes, this one child of divorce has baggage and issues but that doesn't mean every child of divorce does. Furthermore lots of children can come from a home where they are raised by both parents, Godly parents, a great home and still have massive issues, become drug addicts,etc. Please don't place all the children and parents of divorce in a box.

It's actually the first time he has been punished at this house for something like that. It wasn't us he was mad at when he broke the computer either. He was mad at his mother! Go figure that!!!

I'm not. Just saying that there are usually lots of issues. Your post was filled with that very example.