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by Scott Kolecki

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: November 19, 2008

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Britney's plunge into parenthood and the resulting effects that's had on both her and her children. The media has had a field day with it, doing their very best to catch Britney in every possible "inappropriate" parenting moment. But is Britney Spears really a threat to her children? Come on, let's get serious.

To begin, Britney Spears is a music mogul who has built a secure financial future for herself and her family through her reign as a pop star icon. Her net worth is staggering and she has the financial means to support a family in ways most parents only dream. While there is obviously no correlation between financial success and being a successful parent, one can scarcely argue that Britney, for whatever shortcomings she might possess, has not been generous with her money when it comes to her family and friends. You have heard stories circulate about the generous gifts she has bestowed upon her mother and her sister, and there is certainly no question that she has used her wealth to perpetuate the quality of life her family enjoys today.

You might still ask what this has to do with being a good parent? The answer is this-she is financially secure and she takes care of the people closest to her through that financial security. These two points alone suggest that her ability and desire to provide a quality of life for her children is in place.

Now the biggest debate surrounding Britney is the wild lifestyle she's led and the effects it's likely to have on her children. There have been accusations of problems with alcohol and drugs, and there is certainly no shortage of video suggesting that her lifestyle is a little more, shall we say "exotic" than most of us are used to. Even so, we must look at the burdens placed on a person in Britney's position. On a daily basis, her life is exposed to endless invasions of privacy, stemming from media, fans and critics alike. To be under such an incredibly focused microscope all the time has to be impossibly difficult to endure, and so there is little wonder that her life might seem as though it is skewed by society's standards as a whole. This does not justify the actions, but it certainly gives reason to be a little more empathetic to why an individual might fall into a lifestyle such as hers.

But there is another side to this same issue. Her life is so constantly monitored that every infraction, every mistake, every "dangerous" behavior is captured, reported and distributed to the world. Let's consider, for example, the incident where her child was not properly strapped into his car seat. While this behavior cannot be praised, it is reasonable to argue that a great many Americans forget to strap their children into their babayseats at least once in their child's infancy. The difference is that the majority of the world go unnoticed because nobody is watching their every move and action. Britney, who was probably hurriedly trying to escape the media, made a mistake, and has since been crucified for it.

The question that needs to be asked is whether or not Britney is capable of separating her adult, "public" lifestyle from the private life she lives where she is not a celebrity, but a mother. The world is made up of people who have lifestyles that are very different in public than they are in private. Many of these people are parents. In a given night, how many "good" parents leave a bar intoxicated, go home, crawl into bed, and wake up the next morning to their children and act as a parent should? How many "good" parents out there have been, at least once, to a strip club where they slip dollar bills into the ruffles of a stripper's garter, only to return home that night to kiss their sleeping children goodnight? How many "good" parents have taken off for a week and left their children with grandparents (or other family) so that they could enjoy a getaway with their spouse or significant other? Lastly, how are any of the above actions any better (or worse) than many of the incidents that make Britney a "dangerous" mother?

Being a celebrity has to be incredibly difficult. Even as a celebrity, few people reach the level of exposure and fame that Britney Spears has. Passing judgement on her parenting skills (or possible lack thereof) cannot be done objectively, because 99.9% of the global population can't even begin to understand the pressures of such a lifestyle. Britney has not, to date, ever injured her children. She has fought to protect them and keep them in her life-a life that is skewed by definition because of the constant exposure of celebrity.

It is impossible to debate this topic without agreeing that Britney has made some bad choices in her life. There is no argument against this truth. Still, it is not hard to look around the local grocery store, shopping mall, playground or neighborhood before you see a parent treating their children in a way that might be deemed unethical or "dangerous". If Britney were your neighbor or some stranger on the street, you might regard her actions as inappropriate by your standards, but it is doubtful that anything that she's done to date would register as dangerous. We don't respond to her actions, we respond to her celebrity....and that's the real danger-she is held to a different standard because she's a celebrity, and therefore her actions are deemed dangerous even if, in the real world, they would likely go unnoticed.

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