It is not going to end well for Johnny Manziel

Sometimes fathers fuck up and at are at a lost what to do.

He knows.

 

Yeah, got to agree with JC, although in lots of cases, fathers and mothers don't fuck up, despite their best heartbreaking efforts, and are still at a complete loss at what to do.

Got a friend whose son is an absolute train wreck.

I know they've tried lots of things. The hell of it all can be that every effort just makes matters worse for everyone, parents and kid. Really tough to watch the helpful efforts of parents backfire and have the opposite effect.

There are a lot of fucked up kids, teens and 20s, floating around. I suppose it is no worse than other decades and generations, but it sure seems to me that it is worse both in terms of the number affected, the severity of their fried states, combined with an age of entitlement of youth growing up in a world of smartphones and guns.

Sad.

All that said, fuck Manziel.

 

If Manziel tried to pee in a cup, the cup would melt.

 

Judging from his last game, he'd overshoot the target by 10 yards.

 

7.1.16 is still in play here.

 

It's called enabling, and EVERY parent who has ever dealt with an addict does it to some extent. Doesn't make them bad parents. Addiction is complicated; parent-child relationships are complicated. Together, it can often feel like an impossible situation for everyone involved. Publicly severing ties with his son may end up being the best thing JFF's dad ever did. I know a number of people close to me who have successfully beat addiction. In one of those cases, the "rock bottom" moment was a father telling his son, "I love you, but if you don't get help, I don't want to be around you." Harsh? Sure. But it worked. Sometimes a parent (or spouse) has to make a really fucking hard decision about someone they love.

 

I am the parent of a son who was in a car wreck resulting in a traumatic brain injury as a senior in high school, and ever since has dealt with classic TBI symptoms such as substance abuse, anger management issues, and impulse control issues. He is 33 now. I assure you that dealing with a addict is wrenching, difficult, and sometimes heartrendingly painful. It's nowhere near as easy as saying "you ought to do X", or "Throw him out and let him hit rock bottom". That's very easy to say when it's not your kid, he has nowhere to go and no money, and it's seventeen degrees outside... but when it is, things look a bit different.

I wasn't, and am not, the best parent in the world. Like any number of other people dealing with similar situations, we do the best we can for him while trying to also take care of ourselves. Whatever bad decisions that Manziel's father may have made, and whatever his son's wealth and privilege did to make things worse, you can bet he knows better than any of us where he failed and where his son is endangering himself.

 

I also have experience with having an addict in the family. Waiting for someone to "hit rock bottom," as NC said, isn't just cutting off communication. It's knowing that person isn't going have food or knowing that person is sitting in jail and knowing you have to have the strength to turn your back on someone you love. You have to hope that he or she will ask for help and that this is the time treatment will work. My father dying was hard. Craig's death has been unbearable at times, but really, the absolutely worse time in my life was when we were dealing with this family member's addiction. Everyone was in pain.

Although nothing like what the Manziels are going through, part of my family's situation made it on the front page of the local paper. Thank g-d it was before the days of the internet and on-line comments, though.

This morning I was watching "Amy," the documentary about Amy Winehouse. Now there was a father willfully closed his eyes to his daughter's problems.

 

I'll get out of bed and go get my kid at two in the morning in the cold, but he also knows not to even bother calling if he's in county. Give me a holler when you figure out how to get out.

Al-Anon has been very helpful to me when trying to deal with addiction in the family.

 

It's possible jail is the best place for him now.

 

That's exactly what my friend is saying. And he is saying it very bluntly.

 

Yes, because America's prison system does a wonderful job of taking in flawed characters and spitting out healthier ones.