Maybe. Or Addicts Can Love Their Kids And At The Same Time Be A Bad Parent In Some Ways Because Of Their

Maybe. Or addicts can love their kids and at the same time be a bad parent in some ways because of their addiction. Sometimes people with a substance abuse problem can turn it on and superficially keep it together in some settings but not in all aspects of their life all of the time.

Honestly, I hate this idea that because he visibly loves his kids that means that his addiction can't possibly be negatively affecting his parenting. You can love your kids a lot and also fail them in some ways. You can love your kids a lot and still choose your substance over them sometimes. It's not always black and white. And I think it's extremely unrealistic to think that someone with a drug dependence serious enough to motivate them to commit crime and endanger their job (that is the culmination of years and $100ks of training) is able to just completely separate the effects of that addiction from other significant parts of their life.

There's love in the sense of the emotions you feel for someone and then there's love in the sense of how you actually show up for someone. Those two things don't always align.

frank langdon isn't a bad dad because the whole point is that he's an addict that doesn't "appear" to be an addict. he's functional, he's alert, he is focused and engaged and yes, at times, erratic on account of the drugs in his veins but he is always present and if he's that way in the e.r., it stands to reason that he would be that way at home too. he's probably a bad husband to his wife because they don't want to be with each other. if we're being honest. that tends to make you a bit shit at things, when you have to do them and you don't wanna. but he wants to be a dad. he wears his kid's bracelet on his wrist. he calls them just to hear their little voices. he's locked in on the dad thing and, finally, i think that if you're a person who is analyzing the pitt and the conclusion you come to is that frank is a drug addict ergo frank is a bad dad then i think that speaks more to a subconscious and unjustified association between addiction (an illness) and one's personal value to the tune of addicts have no distinguishable personhood outside of their addiction and non-addicts do which is probably not great but understandable considering how disdainful and hateful the world at large is to addiction as a concept. anyway.