In an interesting press conference NFL star Janoris Jenkins addressed the issue of his having 5 kids by 4 moms. No mention is made that he is, or was, married to any of them. Rather than avoid the topic he takes it head on and explains that he has a caring relationship with his kids and financially supports the kids and mothers. He has just signed a new 62.5 million dollar contract so he is well able to do so.
He also says he was honest direct with the mothers telling them upfront that they could not reasonably expect him to be a one woman man since he is a professional athlete. Other than the complex logistics of seeing to the emotional needs of 5 kids in 4 locations it sounds like he has most of his bases covered.
If a man with multiple out of wedlock kids can take care of them all financially is there any basis for criticizing his behavior?
I have my own moral qualms about the way he lives, and I dismiss the notion that being an athlete gives one a license to be promiscuous.
That said, I can’t stop a man from playing around. And it appears he’s never lied to any of the women he impregnated, nor has he failed to meet his financial responsibilities.
So, he doesn’t deserve the opprobrium due to SOME athletes. Still, you’d think he’d either have a vasectomy or start using protection after the FIRST baby came along.
PS He may not collect all or even MOST of the $62.5 million he thinks he’s got coming. NFL contracts are NOT guaranteed.
He seems happy to have five kids. There’s no reason to think that he would have preferred not to get those women pregnant.
It’s not a life I would choose, and I don’t understand why anyone else would think it was a good idea, but if he’s supporting the kids, financially and emotionally, it’s none of my concern.
But as I said, he may be living in a fool’s Paradise. if he assumes he has $62.5 due to him, he may be in big trouble if he gets cut in two years, and learns his contract was not guaranteed.
I don’t think he’s being any more irresponsible than a guy who is making $45K a year and raising 5 kids. Sure, his kids will likely feel more of a burden than a blessing if he were to lose his high paying gig. But the same can be said for anyone with a family.
As long as his girlfriends are properly informed that the’s not the settling down type, I don’t see any problem here.
Yes, he might be in big trouble if he loses his job, but that doesn’t have much to do with the way he created his family. He’d still be in big trouble if he lost his job, hadn’t done anything to plan for future hard times, and had all those kids with one woman.
There’s an enormous difference logistically and economically between a guy living with his 5 kids and their mother and a guy with 5 kids each living with a different mother. (I’m obviously assuming that the 4 mothers and 5 kids don’t all live together in some Big Love type housing situation.)
Realistically, I can’t see how great a father he can be if he can spend at most 25% of his free time with each child.
That makes it sound like he’s maintaining four separate households. He wouldn’t need to go to the kids. They could come to him, and he could have all of them at the same time, for 50% of their lives.
I agree that it’s not optimal to be spread across four households even with the best intentions (and I don’t know how they’re geographically located) but, for the situation he has, he seems to be doing the best with it.
FYI, Jenkins’s contract has $29 million guaranteed. Even after taxes hell have plenty of money. Lots of sports stars lose it all because they don’t set up systems properly, but somehow I see having five kids to support actually may help him avoid that.
**NFL star Janoris Jenkins has 5 kids by 4 moms but takes care of them **
No he doesn’t!
A father takes care of his kids by *being there *through all of their developing years, and beyond. The good times, bad times, boring times, every day times.
The boring day-to-day times where all they really need is an example of a good man in their lives. PTA fucking meetings. After school sports or music or anything that a parent should be there for. Supporting the efforts of the mom with participation in the kids lives.
Throwing money at the baby-momma, even a lot of money, does not fill the void.
Money doesn’t do the job, a good man who is present in their lives, all the time does. He can’t be in 4 places at once, while working. And he is extremely disrespectful of these mothers by telling them that they just have to deal with it because, you know, he is a professional athlete and he will fuck who he wants.
He is a wretched fuck and a poster boy for many of the problems in the black community.
If you judge him you also have to judge the women having children with a man who openly says he won’t be a full time father to them. They made their choices also.
“Jenkins said he sees his kids “the whole time” in the offseason and visits them as much as possible during the season.”
All the kids live in Florida, so it’s geographicallyconvenient. It’s far better than some kids. Are you saying military fathers who are on deployment for months or years at a time are deplorable fathers?
I think it is a less than ideal situation to have children knowing that you will be stationed away from them for long periods of time. Same with people who travel all the time for work. It’s not fair to the kids or the partner/spouse.
I tend to agree, but it doesn’t seem to stop anybody. My point is that there’s a vast gulf of applicable space between “less than ideal” and “wretched fuck” when it comes to fatherhood.