A video clip has emerged from a segment of the Jenny Jones show which program ran from 1991 through 2003. Jones was essentially a female version of Jerry Springer and in one episode featured troubled pre-teens who fail to show any respect to their parents.
The term pre-teen is used loosely as the show featured a ten-year-old boy. The exact nature of his problems wasn’t known except that he was nothing but trouble for his mother. In the usual tabloid show pattern, a confrontation is set up for the viewing audience’s pleasure. A male drill instructor was brought out in full military clothing in an attempt to scare the boy straight.
The drill instructor (DI) threatens the boy with up to eight long years under his control at a boot camp if he doesn’t get his act in order. It was then the DI poses the question to the young boy if he wants him to his “daddy” for the next eight years. The answer presumably would be no, but that is not what the boy said. Instead, he answered “Yes, Sir.” The answer caught the DI off guard to which he followed up by asking the boy why.
The young lass answered simply that he did not have a father. That brought out a strong emotional response in the DI, the boy’s own mother, and the audience. It underscores just how influential a father can be in the life of a child. It became obvious that the boy’s lack of discipline came from the lack of a father figure to show him what it takes to be a man.