[ipodi]

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

I thought I touched on this in my earlier post: the continuous problem is that Satsuki's neglected Ohana all her life, and that she had the nerve to say she raised Ohana pissed me off to say the least. Satsuki hasn't done anything to make Ohana happy even once: never gave her the right present for xmas if any, never showed up at parent's day at school, back out of any promise she made, like taking her to the pool, what have you. The continuous problem is Satsuki's neglectful attittude toward her daughter, so much that she never even bothered to tell Ohana that she's back in Tokyo, split up with her bf and asked if she was doing fine. No, she dumped her at Kissuiso and that was it so far as her relationship with Ohana went. THAT's the continuous problem.

The question on the "continuous problem" was addressed to another poster, so I did not talk about the issues you discussed, and thus, I had to skip what you have said on this issue. But rest assured that I did read what you have said and thought your points were well-reasoned.

If you mean Satsuki, it's not that she's afraid to speak out, it's more that she doesn't care to speak out and just wants to write whatever she has to for herself, without giving thought to the consequences this bears on other people, particularly her daughter.

And unless I need to face the same difficult choice and have the courage to speak up at the expense of my job, I will not make moral judgments on others for failing to make a courageous stand.

I beg to differ. Like I said, being professional means knowing what you're doing and having your methods of doing them. What Satsuki is doing is merely writing what her bosses are telling her to write. That's not professionalism, that's merely following the company's status quo without question. Besides, I'm not the only one who will say that writing a public article that's based on lies and rumors is unprofessional. Many others in the industry would say the same thing.

The publication is unprofessional, not the author of the said piece. Satsuki has lost her chance to become a courageous and an incredible role model, to be sure. But I won't blame her for making the choice she did - until I have gone through the same situation and have the courage to do otherwise.

Being cold and unpleasant to your kid IS a parental failure. When you, deliberately or not, lose your way to communicate to your kid because you're cold and distant, neglecting their needs and desires, that's what it is to be a failure as a parent. On top of that Satsuki didn't try to patch things up and abandoned Ohana. As for the snacks, knowing Satsuki, she gave them to Ohana as her way of saying "give up, you're not gonna convince me anytime soon" rather than showing caring for her.

I think we are defining failure differently. This is too subjective (more so than many other topics), so I will just say that you have raised a good point and leave it at that.

=================================

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

I think you'd be having entirely different problems if the average parent was like Satsuki.

What? Then have the kids to all turn out like Ohana? That would be utopia.