No, Being Raised By A ‘Group Of Pals’ Isn’t Better Than Having A Mom And Dad
Dogs Are More Work Than Kids, And You Can’t Convince This Dad Otherwise
Elon Musk’s Children Need Him — Not Just His Money And His DNA
How God Won Me Over After My Dad Abandoned Me
LeBron’s toughest opponent yet? Fatherhood
The public feud between Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James shows no signs of dying down after the ESPN personality recently went on a popular basketball podcast to talk about his confrontation with the NBA superstar.
Smith claims LeBron confronted him during a Lakers home game over criticism directed at his son Bronny. Smith maintained, however, that his criticism has always been about LeBron’s role in getting his son into the league.
Bronny needs what every man in a highly competitive field desires: respect.
It is easy to understand why LeBron was upset. He has been the face of the NBA for the better part of 20 years. He is a four-time champion, and many believe he is the greatest basketball player of all time. He has never been in trouble with the law and has maintained a public image as a solid family man throughout his career. Playing on the same team as his son was clearly an important career goal, especially considering he grew up without his father.
One of life’s most valuable lessons is that experiencing scarcity in childhood often drives indulgence in adulthood. For example, people who become successful after growing up poor often give their kids all the toys, clothes, and gifts they didn’t receive. Most people understand this impulse, but that doesn’t change the reality that children who get everything they want can quickly become spoiled and entitled. Parents sometimes make well-intentioned decisions that stunt the development of their children.
Bronny’s challenge
LeBron’s place in NBA history is cemented, but the same cannot be said for his son.
Bronny needs what every man in a highly competitive field desires: respect. It is the one thing his father’s wealth cannot buy. It also cannot be secured through social pressure, coercion, or intimidation. Not even “King James” can bequeath the legacy he’s built in the NBA to his oldest son.
Respect must be earned through a person’s hard work and accomplishment. Without it, Bronny will spend his entire career fighting the perception he’s a privileged kid who took someone’s roster spot. His opponents will use that narrative to get under his skin and try their hardest to embarrass him on the court.
No one is rooting against Bronny, but his path to the league and Lakers leaves sports journalists no choice but to talk about his game and the role his father played in securing him a spot on the roster. It’s hard enough to make the transition to the NBA after one year of college for once-in-a-generation players with physical gifts like Zion Williamson. It’s even harder to make the case that a freshman who averaged five points a game at USC is ready for the professional game.
Parental instincts
But this issue is bigger than basketball. Talking about the confrontation between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith makes for entertaining content, but this entire situation is really about the relationship between fathers and sons.
Sons begin emulating their fathers at a young age. They wear their clothes and mimic their mannerisms. As they get older, some boys go even further by attempting to walk in their father’s professional footsteps. It’s difficult enough for the average kid to do this successfully. The challenge is amplified exponentially when your father is a global icon who has been at the top of his profession for decades.
LeBron and Bronny should’ve sat down with Denzel Washington and his son John David to discuss the challenges of being a son in a superstar father’s shadow. Professional sports and acting are not the same, but Denzel probably would have been criticized if he had pulled his son out of a small community theater where he struggled to memorize his lines and demanded that he receive a role on Broadway.
The elder Washington knows his name and reputation carry a lot of weight. He also likely knows that publicly pulling strings to help his son when it’s clear he is not ready for the big stage would do more harm than good. That’s because men must learn how to stand on their own two feet, which means the parental instinct to protect a child — even when he’s an adult — must be balanced with age-appropriate encouragement toward independence. Children learn this at a young age, which is why they'll eventually turn to their parents and say, “I’ve got this, Mom,” or, “I can do it, Dad.”
The pursuit of independence is the unofficial rite of passage into manhood. Anyone or anything — regardless of how well-intentioned — that interrupts that pursuit does a young man a disservice. No father wants to see his son struggle needlessly, but part of raising children is understanding the role obstacles play in building character.
LeBron James has reigned over the NBA for 20 years, but Bronny will never feel like a king as long as he is treated like a privileged prince in constant need of protection.
Elon’s baby-mama drama exposes the right’s pro-family hypocrisy
It’s only a matter of time before Elon Musk goes from the face of tech support to the poster boy for child support. The billionaire owner of X (formerly Twitter) is currently embroiled in some serious baby-mama drama with Ashley St. Clair, the conservative influencer who claims to be the mother of his 13th child.
St. Clair caused quite a stir late last week when she used the social media platform owned by Musk to announce she had his baby five months ago. She claimed she went public because a reporter was planning to do so — against her wishes — and ended her statement by asking the media to honor her privacy. The New York Post published an exclusive interview the next day about her “whirlwind romance” with the billionaire.
The belief that a man’s bank account can replace his presence in the home ignores a fundamental truth: Fatherhood is about more than money.
The relationship between St. Clair and Musk is a private matter, but the response to her announcement from conservatives says a lot about the state of pro-family discourse on the right.
Several congratulated St. Clair, 26, on her new baby. It’s easy to see why pro-life activists and influencers on the right would celebrate the birth of a new baby. Children are a blessing from God, regardless of the circumstances of their conception.
Acknowledging that reality is important in a society that determines the worth of babies by how wanted they are by their mothers. If the mom-to-be is excited to be pregnant, the baby is a “bundle of joy.” But if she doesn’t want the child, then the same life at the same stage of development is called a “clump of cells” that can be destroyed at the nearest abortion clinic.
No one disputes the inherent worth of every child. But when conservatives congratulate adults who intentionally create broken homes, they undermine their pro-family bona fides.
It is difficult for an influential figure to publicly celebrate a child in this circumstance without appearing to endorse the parents’ decisions. Consider this: If a Republican politician known for his strong pro-life stance announced that he was expecting a baby with his mistress and planned to divorce his wife of 25 years, how would his conservative allies react? It’s unlikely they would take to social media to offer their blessings.
The response to St. Clair highlights a stark contrast between what many conservatives claim to support — intact, two-parent families raising children — and the culture they reinforce through their public affirmations.
Musk has had more than a dozen children with four women. He’s previously stated that “a collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” He is a pro-natalist with the mindset of Malcolm X. He wants more babies to be born — by any means necessary.
His views align closely with pro-life Christians, the most socially conservative faction of the Republican Party. But a pro-baby movement that ignores the benefits of a married mother and father is hardly “conservative.”
Stripping marriage from the family formation equation paves the way for commercial surrogacy, unregulated IVF, and same-sex adoption. This shift has consequences.
Today, 40% of American children are born to unmarried parents, and one in four grows up in a single-mother household. For years, conservatives have lamented the breakdown of the black family, where 70% of children are born out of wedlock. They have correctly linked this crisis to the cycle of multigenerational poverty that plagues many inner cities.
Their analysis has never been limited to economic security. Every time a multimillionaire entertainer like Nick Cannon or an athlete like Cam Newton announces a new baby, social commentators predictably criticize their lack of commitment, the consequences of broken homes, and the argument that children need presence over presents.
Yet, when the father in question is a billionaire with ties to the most beloved Republican president since Ronald Reagan, some right-wing commentators suddenly apply a different set of rules.
One conservative commentator made his standard crystal clear:
Pretending that what happens far too often in the black community — getting knocked up by brokeys and bringing into the world children that have to be raised on the taxpayer dime — is similar to procreating with a billionaire is intellectually dishonest.
I responded online, pointing out that his argument only makes sense if a father’s primary role in the home is financial. This assumption has driven left-wing thinking for decades.
Progressives often respond to discussions about family structure by calling for more social spending. To many liberals, a father in the home is nice to have but not necessary, as long as government programs support low-income single mothers.
Apparently, some on the right share the left’s low view of men. Only partisan tribalism could justify the belief that a child is better off with a wealthy, conservative-friendly father who won’t acknowledge them, sees them sporadically, and refuses to commit to their mother.
Children need more than financial support. They thrive with a father’s affection, protection, direction, and correction — things a man juggling a dozen children across multiple states cannot possibly provide consistently.
The belief that a man’s bank account can replace his presence in the home ignores a fundamental truth: Fatherhood is about more than money.
Marriage establishes the duties and obligations husbands and wives have toward each other — not just their financial responsibilities to a child. Men need women, women need men, and children need both parents. The best way to meet those needs is within a loving, low-conflict household where a married mother and father are committed to each other and their children.
Despite what some conservatives may believe, a child raised in that environment is far more privileged than one with a wealthy but absent dad.
Broken poinsettia, unbroken spirit
The Christmases of years past often blur together, but some stand out and remain cherished forever. My father’s last Christmas at home began as a disaster but became something extraordinarily special.
About a dozen years ago, my father was in rapid decline due to a cruel disease that had severely diminished his ability to walk and speak. We knew the time was approaching when he would require 24-hour skilled nursing care. My mother, supported by hired part-time caregivers and nearby family members, worked tirelessly to make his life comfortable and to keep him at home for as long as possible.
The broken poinsettia was such a minor incident, but it was one setback too many. 'Can’t anything go right?' my mother asked as she started to cry.
It was a little before Christmas when my father found the words to say, “It’s time,” lovingly helping the family make the difficult decision as to when we should seek out a nursing facility. He was a generous, compassionate man who even at this awful time sought to give what he could to help his wife and family. His assent to this final move was the gift he offered. A nice nearby facility that my mother could visit every day was found, and the move was scheduled for the new year.
Caregiving is also tough. My mother, who might otherwise have been enjoying her golden years with travel and leisure, was instead a round-the-clock caregiver who was extremely tired after several years in this role.
But there would still be one last Christmas at home! All of their children and grandchildren would be there, including those who lived in other cities and who had started making their own family Christmas traditions. We all made plans to converge on our hometown to celebrate one last all-family Christmas at my parents’ house.
My mother’s excitement about this Christmas gathering gave her strength as she planned for the wonderful meals and the time we would all spend together. The out-of-town family members were scheduled to arrive on December 23.
But things went very bad late on the night of December 22.
My dad experienced a medical emergency that caused him to take a bad fall. My mother called an ambulance and then contacted my wife and me, as we lived in the same city. By the time we arrived at her house, the ambulance had already taken my father to the hospital, and my mother had decided to drive herself there to meet it.
Her night got even worse. While driving to the hospital alone after midnight, my mother’s car had a flat tire, forcing her to pull over on the side of the highway. My wife and I changed course and headed to where my mother was stranded. Before we arrived, she called to tell us that a police officer had pulled up behind her. After hearing her situation, he kindly offered her a ride to the hospital. My wife and I redirected again, arriving at the hospital shortly thereafter. While my wife comforted my mother and assisted with the hospital intake process, I left to take care of the abandoned car.
By the time the rest of the family started arriving the next day, my father was checked into a hospital room and his injuries were being attended to.
Discharge would not occur until after Christmas, meaning there would be no final Christmas at home.
Over the next 36 hours, a constant stream of family members came and went from his hospital room. As the afternoon of Christmas Eve progressed, the family decided to celebrate Christmas Eve together in his hospital room.
Gifts from my parents to the grandchildren would be brought into the room, as would gifts being given to my mother and father. They would be opened on Christmas Eve in the hospital room. A few decorations would also be brought in, and although there wouldn’t be a Christmas tree in the room, a big, beautiful poinsettia from my mother’s house would be brought over.
As dusk settled in on Christmas Eve, the family converged on the hospital, with the grandkids hauling in presents from the cars and the women heading in with trimmings to decorate the room.
But during transport, some presents had shifted and fallen on the poinsettia, knocking it over and breaking several stems. The broken poinsettia was left in the car.
With the family all assembled in the hospital room, my mother inquired about the poinsettia, and she was told of its fate. While disappointed that this Christmas was not playing out as she had envisioned, until now she had stoically persisted in addressing the challenges. After all that had occurred in the past 48 hours, the broken poinsettia was such a minor incident, but it was one setback too many. “Can’t anything go right?” my mother asked as she started to cry.
The daughters-in-law led her into the corridor to console her, while others stayed behind to sing Christmas songs for my father. Meanwhile, the two oldest grandsons returned to the car to retrieve the scattered poinsettia parts. They brought the pieces back into the hospital and, with duct tape borrowed from a nursing station, carefully reattached the broken branches to the original stalks.
The boys triumphantly brought the taped-together poinsettia into the hospital room, and this time it was my father’s turn to be emotional. First there were a few tears, followed by his hearty laugh, as the boys showed off their poinsettia repairs. It was a laugh we all knew well but that we hadn’t heard much recently.
The family was now all back in the room, and my mother was beaming with pride at the love her children and grandchildren were showing to her, to my father, and to each other. We sang carols and opened presents. There was lots of hugging and abundant laughter.
At the center of it all was a beloved man whose earthly race was almost over and a poinsettia held together by duct tape, a poinsettia that will always be a cherished memory to the family assembled in that hospital room.
In The Fight Against Transgender Experiments On Kids, Where Are All The Dads?
Is ‘The Wild Robot’ A Wholesome Family Film Or Transhumanist Propaganda?
Get the Conservative Review delivered right to your inbox.
We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.
Today's top stories