Illegitimate Parents

I grew up in a "blended" family.  We were the "Brady Bunch", only with four boys and one girl.  And two of my siblings were adopted.  They were chosen.  And I view them no differenly than I view my biological brother.  In reality, I have more in common and am closer to my "half-brother" (although I don't consider him a half-brother) than any of my other siblings.

The reason I bring this up is that I have been wondering , as I listen to the radio headlines lately, what the children (possibly six now) think about their father being Arnold Schwarzenegger? And not nowing for 10-14 years. 

When my siblings realized that they were adopted, I think my brother and sister may have had thoughts about our mother not really being their "real" mother.  After all, my step mom was not my biological mom, and I had wondered early on how this whole blended family thing would work out. 

And today, I keep hearing talking heads on TV referring to the boy (and possibly others) as Schwarzenegger’s “illegitimate” son.  I think that is ridiculous. In my opinion, there is no such thing as an illegitimate child. There are only illegitimate parents.  The child had nothing to do with being illegitimate.

Arnold has been an illegitimate father up till now, but he can change that. He needs to sit down with his son, acknowledge him, apologize to him, admit that he failed him, promise to love him, and begin to protect him from ridicule.

That boy is going to need a lot of love and affirmation from his father. Why? Because the idiots in the media have gone after him, publishing horrible, humiliating stories, putting his picture on the Internet and subjecting him to ridicule at school.

Arnold has always played a hero in the movies. But now the whole world knows it was just an act. He now needs to be a real hero for a change.  It is time to stop being an illegitimate parent.  And it is way past time to start being a father.