“You’ve only got her a couple days a week and most of that is spend with a rotating cast of nurses.” – Adams
“That’s how Daddy likes to spend his time, too.” – Chase
The question throughout this episode of House was whether or not all parents screw up their kids. I can tell you with fierce certainty that the father in the segment before the title credits did … you know the one; the one who allowed his child to hit the birthday clown and then yelled at the birthday clown for it. That one. Don’t even get me started.
What I want to know is how badly House’s and Foreman’s parents screwed them up, because clearly they wouldn’t have screwed over poor Wilson if they weren’t damaged in some way. It’s as though the theme of this episode excused everyone’s manipulative behavior: “My parents made me do it.”
Is Chase OK with spying on Adams, letting House eavesdrop on their conversation via phone, because his parents screwed him up? The best part of that was Adams slowly delivering an increasingly unbelievable story and watching Chase start to catch on.
Taub’s parents must have screwed him up, to make him so selfish, right? Even fatherhood can’t change this guy who is out for himself through and through. While I get that he loves and wants to be with his daughter, he was *this close* to actually doing the right thing … something he’s clearly incapable of. Must be his parents’ fault.
Obviously, there’s a great deal of sarcasm wending its way through my post, but as a daughter of really great parents, and hopefully as the pretty great mom of an amazing kid, I find it hard to buy into the theme of this episode. It’s called personal responsibility, people. It’s not your parents’ fault. If you turned out crappy, go fix yourself. This was touched upon nicely in the conversation between Chase and Adams, when Chase said that his family dysfunction made him better, got him interested in medicine. Maybe not all personalities would handle it this way, but all personalities have the capability of fixing whatever they don’t like about themselves. It might be hard, but it’s not impossible, and no one ever said this life thing would be easy.
This and that:
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Nov 14, 2011 @ 22:36 EST5EDT
I love House, but part of what makes him House is he thinks he knows everything based on his limited experience of the world. “My parents screwed me up. All my friends’ parents screwed them up. Therefore, EVERYONE has been screwed up in some way by their parents.” Flawed logic. Although House makes up axioms (“Everybody lies”) based on this flawed logic, he is often right because he does seem to understand human nature, which is inherently selfish. His problem is that he makes up these flawed rules and leaves no room for exceptions. Instead of “People often lie,” which would be more accurate, he makes a hard rule that everybody lies. So when someone comes along and does NOT lie, instead of acknowledging that his rule is flawed, he prefers to twist and manipulate reality until it fits his rule again. He doesn’t seem to believe in right and wrong (morality), so creating these rules gives him a sense of order. House counts on his rules to govern reality, just as we count on the law of gravity to govern the physical world. If we couldn’t count on it – if gravity sometimes didn’t work – then we would have to live with uncertainty. Uncertainty is something House can’t live with – he always has to KNOW. That’s what drives him to solve mysteries and find out what people are really thinking.
flawed logic… i like that topic too… but to answer the question “is house right or wrong”?…. he is BOTH!
if house was to be proven wrong, it would need to be done by someone who is a “perfect parent”, or atleast challenged by someone who claims to be a “perfect parent”. by show of hands, who in the room is a “perfect parent” (only the really screwed up people will raise their hand)
as one viewer commented, “taking personal responsibility” for what happens in your child’s life. i assume they mean to control every single element your child is exposed to in life… is this kind of control even possible? what extremes would a parent have to go to, in order to try achieving this kind of control? is that kind of behavior logical (or even healthy)? who taught them to be paranoid control freaks? where i come from that kind of behavior causes way more damage than it does benefit. but who knows? maybe my folks “screwed me up” too! i know my kids have had things different than i did, but some things are the same. i know for a fact they have been exposed to things that may screw them up… just being honest.
in a world where there are so many ways to interpret things, who is to say what is right, and what is wrong…. the phrase “screwed up”, is really what needs to be examined, before House or anyone else can use it as a label…
by the way, expecting things without flaws = insanity. everything is flawed, including parenting. to expect thing after thing to be without flaw is the very definition of insanity. everything and everyone has flaws. if you do not agree with this, then you are a godless soul…. may the all-mighty have mercy on you.
You could not talk about “personal responsability” for children. Parents do screw their kids up, for sure.