I don't know why someone asked Russell Crowe for parenting advice, but the question launched a tweetstorm over the weekend for Crowe that had him deleting tweets and apologizing.
It started on Thursday when a follower asked Crowe if he should circumcise his son. That was spark to gasoline.
Russell replied, "Circumcision is barbaric and stupid. Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that GOD requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are perfect."
Then he added, "I love my Jewish friends, I love the apples and the honey and the funny little hats but stop cutting yr babies."
But when Russell got nasty Tweets from some of his other followers, he really went off . . . saying, "I will always stand for the perfection of babies, i will always believe in God, not man's interpretation of what God requires.
"last of it, if u feel it is yr right 2 cut things off yr babies please unfollow and [eff] off, I'll take attentive parenting over barbarism."
By Friday morning, Russell had removed all his Tweets, and posted the following apology: "I have a deep and abiding love for all people of all nationalities, I'm very sorry that I have said things on here that have caused distress.
My wife and I snipped both my sons. The first experience was so unpleasant that my wife wouldn't attend the procedure for the second. The boys are strapped to little boards and administered a variety of medications to lessen the pain, but it is still a traumatic experience to watch - I won't discount that.
We did it to them for purely selfish reasons. My wife wanted the kids to look like daddy although the hygienic argument also weighed in to our decision.
Am I less of a parent because I snipped my kids? I'd hope not.
Is Russell Crowe less of a parent because he smokes? I'd argue so.
By his own account he's had more than 18,000 cigarettes in his lifetime.
Now he did try to quit last summer. The thought of his kids seeing him with a cigarette in his mouth was a little much.
"The reality break was that my kids never saw me smoke.... I was in my office ... and I thought I heard my office door open and I looked around and couldn't see anything, so I had my cigarette. Later on I leant over to put my cigarette out and he was lying between the couch and the table and he very definitely saw me having a smoke. And that was my very last one." [source]
That was in July 2010, and it wasn't his "very last one." By November he was off the wagon back with a cancer stick between his fingers while still "trying to quit." Now who's to say if he's since quit again, but one can only imagine the diapers he changed, kisses he gave and hands he held during the times when he slips a little bit.
After all, he is a proponent of "attentive parenting."
I don't know about you, but I'll take my chances with the absence of a 1/4 inch of foreskin over 18-years of cuddling my kids with beefy mitts that have been soaked in carcinogens for hours each day.
Your mileage may vary.
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