Jamie Lee Curtis thinks that Kathy Hilton is responsible for where Paris is today, and that none of this would have happened if Kathy had acted more like a mother to Paris, rather than her friend.

It was a painful episode to watch. A young woman, begging her mother, the person who should have taught her right from wrong, to help her, to teach her the rules of life. It was a little too late. And so she wept as the Universe was bringing the teaching and settling the score.

I’m in no glass house. I understand only too well the pitfalls of maternal amnesia and denial.

I am not throwing stones but merely a lifesaver, a buoy of sanity and understanding. “My analyst told me, that I was right out of my head,” Joni Mitchell sang in the song “Twisted.” I was twisted. I am twisted. I am deluded that my attempts at being liked and loved by my children and friends with them — all at the same time — were going to result in “well raised children.” We were the generation that would take the job of raising our children and turn it into… PARENTING. We were the generation who applauded every move they made. Every step they took. “Good climbing, Brandon” was our hue and cry. We were raised by people who didn’t “understand” us and now we don’t “understand” why our children are so messed up.

It is a national epidemic. Omnipotent children running amok or sitting amok as they watch TV and play electronic games and shop on eBay.

The sad paths of the three most popular young women — privileged but from varying backgrounds, talented, beautiful and spectacular — have ended in prison, rehab and mental illness. I hope their mothers are worried sick and wondering, “What could I have done differently?” And our culture should be asking the same question too.

I have to say, I completely agree with Jamie. So many mothers these days think the “cool” thing to do is to be their daughter’s BFF rather than be their mother.

Kathy Hilton did Paris no favors when she allowed her to begin hitting the party scene and clubbing (many times with her, tagalong) when she was barely sixteen. If you think about it, it’s Kathy who gave Paris free reign to become a professional party girl. Had she wanted, she could have encouraged Paris to go to college and start learning about hotel management, and perhaps join the ranks of other successful and respectable socialites like the Miller sisters. But for some reason, Kathy chose not to. When Paris’s sex tapes got leaked to the entire universe, instead of grounding Paris and telling her to stop being a slut,her parents were proud of the tape because it made Paris an internationally famous superstar. Sadly enough, Paris Hilton has now become a prime example of what happens when a child grows up with no boundaries, responsibilities, rules, or parental guidance. She turns into a twenty six year old child with the mental age and capacity of a tantrum throwing six year old. In other words, a spoiled rotten brat.

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, and I fully understand no parent is perfect, myself included, but Jamie Lee Curtis has brought up an important point that many parents should take to heart. That is, if you don’t tell your kids right from wrong, the justice system will do it for you. And “Mom, it’s not right.”

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Paul Zanetti, Australia. Cartoon licensed from Cagle.com