Bieber Mom Pattie Mallette Had The Worst Childhood Ever

The mom of Justin Bieber, Pattie Mallette, chronicles a childhood filled with sexual abuse, homelessness and alcoholism in her new book “Nowhere but Up: The story of Justin Bieber’s Mom.” I wasn’t that interested in reading this book until I read this article from The Seattle Times:

She was 2 when she watched her alcoholic, abusive father walk out the door and about 3 when she was first sexually abused by someone she knew. Mallette doesn’t identify her numerous molesters, including a male baby sitter and the grandfather of a friend, but the last words of her book’s acknowledgments speak volumes. “To my abusers: I forgive you.”

“I was sexually violated so many times that as the years went by it began to feel normal,” wrote the petite Mallette. “It’s a strange marriage – knowing something is wrong yet at the same time finding it familiar and commonplace.”

Fear, shame and the notion that she was an unlovable, “dirty girl” stretched through her life. She said the “void of having a father in my heart” led her down rough paths, including drinking and drugging to oblivion, beginning at age 14.

There was pot smoking and LSD. She left home at 16. To support herself and pay for her destructive habits, she turned to petty crime and pot dealing – and the toxic, on-again-off-again, four-year relationship she had with Justin’s father, Jeremy Bieber, that began when she was 15. At 17, she threw herself in front of a truck and landed in a mental ward.

And now in my mind, Pattie Mallette went from total boring showbiz mom to utter badass survivor mom. Mallette writes about how she decided not to abort Bieber and with the help of a neighbor went on to earn her high school degree followed by college training in website design.

The article continues:

At 21, Mallette made a choice to abstain from sex outside of marriage. Still never married and holding strong, she IS ready let go of another promise, this one to Justin when they first moved to the states that she wouldn’t date until he was 18.

Well, now that Justin Bieber is 18, the age when his mother gave birth to him, she is ready to start dating again. It sounds to me like she deserves some time for herself after everything she has been through. I do agree with Lindsay Cross when she writes:

However, I also don’t think that Mallette’s story should be held up as a reason why other women shouldn’t be able to have an abortion. ”You might have the next Justin Bieber growing inside of you,” is not a reason for a woman to give birth to a child that she isn’t ready to care for. Patti Mallette made a decision, one she understood and felt confident in. Every woman should be able to do the same thing.

But part of me also wants to read a happy Hollywood ending about a mom who had a really hard life and then went on to raise a son who probably buys her some really amazing Christmas presents. Isn’t this what we all want for our kids? Not necessarily the fame and paparazzi-stalking, but the thought that some day they may buy us all a car.

(Photo: Amazon)