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It must be somewhat strange to be Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mildred Baena’s “love” child this Father’s Day. Think about it, you’re 13 years old and just discovered that your father is not only your mother’s long-time employer, not only an international movie star, not only the former governor of California, but… the Terminator.
I have no idea whether Arnold and the boy, identified in Hello! magazine as Joseph, are going to develop a relationship. Based on what has been said in the press thus far, and what Baena told Hello!, the boy has only known that Arnold is his father for the past year. When she finally broke the news, his succinct response was, “Cool!”
Things might be “cool” for now, but I wonder how cool they’ll stay. I myself grew up in a somewhat parallel situation to Joseph. No, my father isn’t a celebrity. Yes, I always knew his identity. But my parents separated so quickly after my birth that I never really knew my father. I didn’t once grow up in the same household with him. He also married another woman and I have three half-siblings. Joseph has four half-siblings, Arnold’s children with Maria Shriver.
My half-siblings, just like Joseph’s, grew up in a state of luxury compared to my upbringing—and they were, as I suppose they should have been—always my father’s first priority. I would remember having phone calls with my father wherein one of his younger children would begin talking to him, or crying, or yelling about something, and he would essentially forget that I was on the line while he dealt with them. I remember that I would go visit them and be jealous of their tightly knit family unit, and somewhat resentful of their large house and life of ease and privilege.
Joseph, once he gets past “cool,” might have some of the same feelings. Like it or not, Arnold’s other children are always going to have a closer relationship with Arnold than he will have, and they will get a leg up in the world, financially and otherwise, that he may not get. Additionally, he might have to live with the knowledge that his existence helped tear the Schwarzenegger family apart. May his half-siblings maybe even resent him because of this?
Today, my father and I are fairly close. Not remotely as close as he is to his other three children, but that is understandable. My father and I don’t usually celebrate Father’s Day, but in a few weeks we’re going to make a short trip together and I’ll buy him dinner.
Meanwhile, my thoughts go out to Joseph. Every child would like his or her father in their life in some capacity, and I hope that Arnold and his son by Baena are able to develop a meaningful relationship. It would be “cool.”
Source Kiri Blakeley
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