As the denouement of a really upsetting celebrity scandal came to its close, a tearful child pleaded to her mother... "Mom, it's not right."

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.

What we need to do is look long and hard at our part in all this. Where did our children get the message that the rules don't apply to them? And where did we, the Mothers, get the message that if we abdicate our responsibilities as Mothers, the Universe will do our job for us? And it does, but without any of the love and tenderness and compassion that we could have given, along with the lessons.

Now it's just the cold hard facts of a jail cell or the emptiness of a rehab room.

I'm not pointing fingers. I'm asking questions.

Can we take the wrenching sight of Paris asking her mother, "why?" and ask it of ourselves?

My analyst told me this: "Children are paparazzi. They take your picture mentally when you don't want them to, when you don't look good, and show it back to you in their behavior."

Let's hope that we all learn what is RIGHT and what is so WRONG.

Wake up, Mothers and smell the denial.

Extracted from "The Huffington Post"

Site At: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Jamie Lee Curtis is a film actress with starring roles in such acclaimed films as Freaky Friday, True Lies, Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda.

In television, Ms. Curtis co-starred opposite Richard Lewis in the sitcom Anything But Love, as well as the title role in TNT’s adaptation of Wendy Wasserstein’s play, The Heidi Chronicles, and the CBS telefilm, Nicholas’ Gift.

Ms. Curtis is also an author of best-selling children’s books with net sales of all editions exceeding 4.6 million units. In addition to her most recent and seventh book, the New York Times Bestseller, Is There Really A Human Race?, she is the author of It’s Hard To Be Five, Learning How To Work My Control Panel, I’m Gonna Like Me, Letting Off A Little Self Esteem, Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery, Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day, Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born, and When I Was Little, A Four-Year-Old’s Memoir of Her Youth.

Ms. Curtis is also an AIDS activist and has a deep and active connection to many children’s charities including, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles as well as being the official spokesperson for CAAF (The Children Affected by Aids Foundation) and on whose Executive Advisory Board she is a serving member and The Starlight/Starbright Foundation. Ms. Curtis is a recovering alcoholic/addict and is honored to serve on the Board of Directors of CASA (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University). She is the mother of Annie, age 20 and Thomas, age 11 and has been married for 22 years to actor/director Christopher Guest.