The tabloids have been busy covering what is allegedly the first custody visit of the kids as they spend time back in London with Guy Ritchie. The London Daily Mail has printed what it claims to be a long list of rules Ritchie must adhere to while in charge of the kids that they acquired from a personal assistant’s e-mail. The list includes such fun-busters as: no watching movies or television, eating only a “macrobiotic, vegetarian, organic diet with no processed or refined food,” drinking only Kabbalah water, and not being permitted to play with toys that are “spiritually or ethically unsound.”

It isn’t just the length and derail of Madonna’s list that I found interesting, but the fact that by “children” the list was really only referring to the boys, Rocco and David. Yes, I realize that Madonna’s daughter Lourdes has a different father, but still, after seven years of marriage and a relationship together well before that, certainly the couple did their best to present an image of a happy, blended family… until now. It seems Lourdes will not be having any regular contact with her step-father, a man who–one surmises–has been active in her life during her formative pre-teen years.
So I can’t help but wonder if this latest revelation is yet another glimpse of a fractured, unhealthy relationship based on control and not in the best interests of the children. It seems to me that the spiritual health and well-being of the children would be better achieved by fewer rules and a little more harmony between the parents.