Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | March 3, 2026
Raising kids is hard, man. It’s not just the lack of sleep, constant fear, and worry, or having a living manifestation of the passage of time staring you in the face. You can do everything in a way you think is correct or at least loving and still screw up. That beautiful child of yours could have everything they need and still grow into someone who seemingly doesn’t know how to function as a human being. No one is immune to it, not even the Hanks family.
Despite a positive public persona, I’m sure there are things Tom Hanks’ children (of which he has four) would tell him he did wrong in raising them. That’s just the way things go. I’m confident that I’m doing well with my kids (they’re polite little sweeties), but I’m also prepared to be told, some years from now, that, in fact, I messed up quite a bit. Hopefully, they are at least functional human beings when they decide to tell me that and not stuck in another country without the correct passport.
That’s what is currently going on with Chet Hanks, someone I legitimately thought was some kind of performance artist when I first saw him. “Oh, weird, someone is pretending to be Tom Hanks’ son and is putting on an accent to do so, weird,” is definitely an idea that went through my head. But no. That’s how the man actually is. And in addition to… presenting himself a certain way, he’s also known for being a self-proclaimed “black sheep” while bragging about not getting vaccinated for COVID. Not great!
Now, he’s stranded in another country. The actor recently revealed on social media (via THR) that he had taken a trip to Puerto Rico for his friend’s birthday, but then he decided to go to Medellin and then Colombia and then back to Medellin (I think), where he was not allowed leave because he had his Greek passport and not his U.S. one. So, now, he’s being told he needs a green card to get back home.
Hanks will probably be fine. He’s rich, and so is his family. Something will get worked out eventually. But it’s still all very embarrassing. I also know that my kids wouldn’t have such connections to bail them out of trouble, so I have to hope against hope that they won’t do stupid stuff like this when they are older, even though I know that they will, and I’ll likely (or, at least, ideally) never hear about most of it. But that’s what I signed up for. I’m doing my best, but it’s still a giant roll of the dice.
