Wild or Too Mild?

For all the good that fathers do, it is still the dads gone wild who often make the headline.

So, once again we have Michael Lohan, father of "Mean Girl" Lindsay, making gossip mag noise for being a "public embarrassment" and "bully" because he is not making nice about her girlfriend. Not that being nice about a girl friend is an obvious route to popularity ... but maybe it depends upon the circumstances as an unnamed Ocala, Fla., father is being hosted by the local cops for getting his son a girlfriend. Now it happened to be a one-time girlfriend, and his 15-year-old son wasn't happy to be set up with a hooker by his dad, but it was really the mom, who ratted pops out, who seemed the most upset with the father bullying his son.

Perhaps it's all part of the daddy-do-this conundrum. Too much hands on and interference and you're blamed like the dads above. Too little, like the billionaires just passing on money to their richie rich daughters and you're blamed. And while completely walking out on your son like father Obamaa did to follow his own ambitions may eventually be part of what makes the son a hero, it certainly doesn't seem that the complete hands-off approach is the way to go either ... even if by hands-off you really mean shoot a man over $2 as did Freddie Edwards and miss the chance to sit in the stands to watch your son (Armanti) become a possible Heisman hero.

Once again the message is to search for the middle. Daddies gone wild or too mild may make for good stories, but it doesn't necessarily make for good parenting.