Big confession: I didn’t watch the Michael Jackson debacle, er, funeral this week. But I couldn’t help myself when it came to the video of little Katherine Paris Jackson crying for her daddy.

I know I’m hardly the first to immediately link the stricken child’s very public mourning to that of little John Kennedy Jr. saluting his famous father’s coffin in front of the nation.

Mourning is hard. Mourning for kids is harder still. But kids mourning in public?

Their pain is compounded by having to share the most private of moments with the world. I can’t fault the Jackson family for sharing the moment with the world – Michael Jackson was a very public figure. The same way JFK was a public figure or Princess Diana. But their kids had to share their grief with a world full of people who could not summon the same level of pain. I personally don’t mourn Michael Jackson because I didn’t know him. I am saddened – mostly for those kids – but I can’t honestly say I mourn him . . . or Farrah Fawcett . . . or Billy Mays . . . or any celebrity.

But their kids do. They aren’t acting up there, that’s their real life. And as a parent, it’s almost unbearable to watch, but like the proverbial trainwreck, you can’t look away. In our radio show broadcast earlier this week, my colleague Brett Singer said he’s wary of even watching the stricken Jackson daughter take the mic to talk about her Daddy. I can’t blame him, and I’d advise parents who haven’t seen it to either bring a box of tissues or just don’t watch it.

That said, I’m mystified by some of the reactions to Sunny’s post this week sharing Katherine’s breakdown. Said one comment: “I can’t believe you wasted your time in watching it. He’s dead; we didn’t know him so why are we still going on and on about this over a week later. There are more important things in the world than this.”

While I agree that we didn’t know him, and the world is full of important things, there are now three children without a parent . . . and she can’t summon an eensy weensy bit of sympathy? You don’t have to like Michael Jackson to feel sorry for his children anymore than the Republicans of the sixties had to fall in love with JFK to let loose a flood of tears watching little John John say his last goodbyes. I didn’t know Princess Diana either – but watching her two sons walk quietly and seriously in the funeral procession made my chest ache.

Kids tug at your heart strings, even the stone coldest heart. Think miserly Silas Marner – what opened him back up to the sunshine? Or cranky old Miss Havisham?

The reason children are thrown to the forefront of charities’ pleas for donations is because their faces are most likely to summon sympathy. Cynical, I know, but tell me it isn’t true. The Girl Scouts wouldn’t sell as many cookies if the troop leaders were hawking them, and the March of Dimes makes out a lot better at the end of the year than the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (both worthy causes – but MS usually strikes later – making it harder to push people to “help the little kids.”).

And so the kids who have lost their parents and grieved in public have millions of parents wishing they could just reach out and give that little mite a hug. Even if you hate their dad, they’re just little kids.

Image: BBC

Related Posts:

• Do Kids Belong at Funerals?

• Michael Jackson IS the Real Dad: Proof

• Guess Who’s Buying Michael Jackson’s Thriller

• Morning News – Did Something Happen to Michael Jackson?

• Michael Jackson’s Kids at The Memorial – Paris Makes Us Cry

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