Doug Clerget is a popular contestant on The Bachelorette with many ladies. He is good looking and he talks a good game about his love of his son and how much he misses him. But he is also a man with a criminal past and a constant seeming need to prove something.
What is it they say about someone who insists something so loudly? Can he really BE all the things he says he is? I doubt it.
Here is a fact: A good dad treats his child's mother with respect and love. Period and end of story. Doug's story is complicated and probably has two sides (as all stories do), but he has been arrested for domestic violence. That isn't treating a woman "well." Sorry, dad, no man gets a free pass on treating a woman like crap just because he loves his kid. If you bad mouth or hit or otherwise treat your ex like crap, you aren't a good parent.
Oh yes. This applies to women as well. A good mom understands that her child needs both his parents and especially that he or she needs to respect both parents. A good mom doesn't bad mouth her ex, much as she may want to.
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And that goes for Doug, too. Sorry, you don't get to pay lip service to being a good dad and then not be one in the most basic way. It seems true that most parents who say they are great parents and who follow all the rules and devote their lives to parenting are very often the ones who turn out the most messed up kids.
That is no accident. If you think you are a great parents and you keep on telling everyone you are, but then you don't DO the things that actually make a good parents, like staying home rather than going on a reality show or not bad mouthing your ex, then you are no great shakes at the whole parenting deal. Sorry.
People who are good a parenting (and at life) are open to others' ideas. They don't declare themselves excellent parents, they learn from their mistakes. Maybe Doug has, but maybe he hasn't and the way he continues to play the kid card like it's some kind of badge of honor is highly suspect. A good dad simply is. He doesn't feel the need to make sure everyone knows it.
It's disheartening how many women buy his act, too. A good mom or dad is way to busy BEING a good mom or dad to take the time to make you think he is awesome.
Do you think a good dad would say he was a good dad?
Image via ABC
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Comments 11
Arrested for domestic violence is not a good enough reason to write a man off in my opinion. I've known men who were the victims of domestic violence, but were the ones arrested. I don't know anything about this guy. I don't watch The Bachelorette, but don't assume such an arrest actually means something. There may well be a very valid reason he was arrested, but not convicted. Plus, you are accusing him of not being a good dad simply because he's not self-efacing about his fatherhood capabilitites? Kind of a weak argument.
Doesn't he have full custody of his son? Doesn't that say something about him being a fit parent? Please don't forget this is a TV show. He could have easily said "I'm a good dad" twice and producers will use that sound bite over and over. There are plenty of times they use the confessional interview in different times & periods of the show.
The title and the article contradict one another....