Michael Lohan Is Helping Lindsay With Rehab.
Apparently Michael and Lindsay are preparing to spend some quality father-daughter time together. According to this report, he is headed to Utah today to help his daughter prepare for life post-rehab:
This time, Michael will take LiLo from the facility to a remote undisclosed location in Utah as part of out-patient therapy, he said.
“I’m looking forward to spending the next week with her,” he said. “We’ve been in constant phone contact. She’s in a great, great place now. I’ve never heard her so honest, contrite and focused.
“Lindsay is weeding out all the bad. She’s taking a step back and reevaluating her life. What she tells – her honesty and openness – has brought me to tears. It’s beyond words how proud I am of her.”
This has the green light from staff at Cirque Lodge rehab center:
Sources said Michael and LiLo wanted next week’s visit and counselors gave their blessing.
“They believe Michael’s the best person for Lindsay to be with now,” one insider said.
“Not only is he her dad – someone with her best interests at heart – but he’s also someone who successfully turned his own life around after battling substance abuse.”
I will be the first to admit that when I read this, I was initially skeptical. After all, Lindsay’s parents aren’t up for any blue ribbons or “Parent Of The Year” awards. Her father was recently released from jail after spending time for a whole host of offenses, including drugs, assault, and DUI, and her mother is the Stage Mom From Hell. I mean, seriously. All she can seem to do is make excuses for her daughter’s problems, blame everyone else, spend money, and refuse for either she or Lindsay to take personal responsibility for anything.
But, while both parents have made mistakes, Michael looks like the one emerging on top as far as Lindsay’s care goes. He does seem to be cleaning up his act, and he appears to be the one who is making the extra effort to make sure that Lindsay stays on the sober, drug-free path. I don’t see her leech her mother doing anything but enabling her meal ticket her daughter by throwing up her hands theatrically offering feeble excuses (anyone remember “they weren’t her pants”?). Dina is living the high life off her daughter’s back, and making sure that she has all the perks she needs to live life how she wants it to be. Oh, and as far as what others think of her as a parent?
“I’m living the American dream, and you can go . . .” she exclaimed after Harper’s asked her what she would say to critics of her parenting techniques.
In the interview in the April issue, the 44-year-old Lohan described how she’s more like a sister to her fire-haired daughter – going out to clubs with her and even wearing her old Prada jacket and Jimmy Choo boots.
“If you can button it and clip it when you’re in your 40s, you’re going out,” she said as she put her hand in the air to solicit a high-five from the Harper’s reporter.
And that is just one quote. I could have chosen from so many more. Dina spews excuses like projectile vomiting.
Yeah, way to be a responsible parent to your remaining so-far-unaddicted kids, there. Remember, this is the woman who took an Entertainment Tonight crew to visit her daughter when Lindsay was in rehab the first time. And, lest we forget, Dina is also Lindsay’s “momager”, which means she gets a cut of all Lindsay’s earnings. Michael, on the other hand, who receives no income from Lindsay, seems to be taking responsibility for his part in screwing up his daughter (and his other children), as evidenced by this interview shown on “Larry King Live”:
How — if I — if I didn’t [take responsibility for what Lindsay is going through], I’d be a liar. I mean, everyone around Lindsay, especially her parents, have a direct bearing on her life. And I made some really stupid choices in my life. I made some mistakes. And I can — I can definitely identify with what she’s going through, because when I was torn from my family, I reacted the wrong way. My family is the most important thing in my life. I love my children, always did and always will. And I was — contrary to what people say, I was always there for my kids. The problem was when I was taken out of their life the way I was, I reacted the wrong way. And whether it was to numb the pain or drown the sorrow, I was wrong.
Find me a parent who has not made mistakes with their children. We all have said things and done things that we regret and wish we could get a “do-over” on. The key is to not continue making the same mistakes, to learn from them, and to try to do much better. Divorced parents have it especially rough because they can get blamed for many things, exaggerated or not, by a revengeful spouse. It’s easy for the custodial parent to say, “You were not there for your children,” when it was the custodial parent who cut the other parent out of the children’s life to begin with. Unfortunately, children get caught in the middle, often growing up not knowing what to believe….and let’s face it, when you are growing up with only one side of the story, it is easy to believe the other parent is the “bad guy”.
Of course, that doesn’t mean daddy dearest is an angel. Has Michael Lohan made mistakes as well? Yes, a truckload of them, and he continues to do so. This guy is no prince. Lately, his worst fault is that he can’t seem to keep his big yapper shut, but that could be because until recently he has not been allowed contact with his children through normal channels. Yeah, he’s deserved a lot of the crap thrown his way, but he does look to be genuine in wanting to help his daughter to clean up her act and kick her addictions, and there comes a point where you have to let the past go if the person is really trying to atone.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe that Lindsay has to own up and take responsibility for her own share of her farked-up life, because no matter how bad our upbringing was, there comes a point when we are responsible for our own actions. But it definitely is a big struggle when you’ve had a background such as this. She needs her parents to be her parents, and not her party companions or her BFFs…however, it looks like only one is stepping up to the plate.
Basically, time will tell if Michael is genuine or not, but at the moment I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I’m on your side for now, Michael…just don’t screw this up.
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Great assessment of an all-too familiar situation in Hollywood.
Too bad Lilo tested positive for drugs while in rehab. Mommy dearest is probably the culprit!
Comment by D — October 2, 2007 @ 9:30 pm