This week’s episode showed two very interesting and very different ways of parenting.
There’s Bret Michael’s I’ll-do-it-all-for-her style. (Anyone notice that each week there’s drama with this guy? And, by the way, I still love him.) A few minutes into the beginning of the task, just as Bret is coming down from another ADHD-brainstorm-high, his phone rings. Apparently, its his daughter. She’s terrified. It looks like she’s about to be diagnosed with diabetes, something that tears Bret up on the inside. He consoles her. He talks to her. And he looses all direction (and we all know he doesn’t have a lot of focus already) because he can’t stop thinking about her. He blames himself. He’s worried. And its all rightly so. But he’s on The Celebrity Apprentice for exactly this reason. He was a child who grew up with childhood diabetes. He knows the pain, the scares of the shots, the difficulties. I’ve talked to friends about it. I can only imagine how painful and difficult it is to grow up with this dreadful disease. While Bret was distracted (rightly so) he stuck by the game of the Apprentice, raising money for his charity. Celebrating love for his daughter, and all the other’s who suffer childhood, and lifetime, diabetes, he fought on with his team. But he shared his fears, his pain and his guilt. The fact that he cried about it? That’s a strong man, really. He broked down and cried on national TV. Its his daughter, of course he’s emotional.
Flipside. All the while, Michael Johnson is quietly going through his own family turmoil. We don’t know when or what happened (because he didn’t share) but there was a serious personal, family issue at home with Johnson’s son, and Johnson, at the end of the episode, before the boardroom, gave his resignation to Mr. Trump. Actually, he didn’t resign, he asked for time off. But it wasn’t granted. Trump asked Johnson what the problem was. Johnson refused to address it. And Trump explained that it wasn’t really “fair” to the others if Johnson can just come back later. Skip a few weeks, let others be fired, and then show up again. There were no emotions. There was no side-story. There was a problem and he left.
Oh. There are so many things to discuss here. Should Bret Michaels be by his daughter’s side? Should Michael Johnson have pleaded his case with Mr. Trump to remain in the game? Was it right to leave? Was it right to stay?And, in the real business world, would Johnson have been fired for asking for a leave of absence when his son is having a “personal family issue”?
Share your thoughts, please. Discuss.
On a sidenote, Johnson and Michaels aren’t the only ones who have left their children to play The Celebrity Apprentice for charity:
Holly Robinson Peete: 4 children, one with Autism for which she and her husband founded the HollyRod Foundation benefiting families who affected by autism
Sharon Osborne: 2 children in their 20s
Cyndi Lauper: 1 son in his teens
Bill Goldberg: 1 child
Summer Sanders: 2 children, ages 3 and 2
And while the celebs aren’t required to bunk in like the regular series Apprentice members do, its still time away from the routine for those who participate.
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