The Baby Borrowers

I don't watch reality TV, but I watched The Baby Borrowers tonight. OMG!! It is quite something.

The concept of the show is to put five teenage couples through what adulthood is like--in six episodes. Tonight they went through 'pregnancy' and the first day with an infant. Needless to say, some of them failed in big ways. There were some--okay, one--of the snot-nosed brats that I wanted to slap silly. And I'm NOT talking about the infants, of course. One of the girls REFUSED to participate in the pretend pregnancy--the wearing of an empathy belly (pregnancy suit). Um. EXCUSE ME, but didn't YOU sign up for this mess? Yeah, she acted like a petulant five-year-old and stayed in bed whining and pouting. Her boyfriend then said HE would wear the suit because she wouldn't. PLEASE don't let this girl reproduce any time soon!!! Disgusting.

Talking about disgusting...I do happen to lean toward the old-fashioned in many ways, so the following comes from that. I REALLY was not too pleased to see that, not only were the teenage couples living in the same house, they were sleeping in the same bed. Um, WHY? It is one thing for us to be bombarded all of the time with unmarried couples in bed together on fictional shows, but now we have to see teenage couples sleeping together on reality TV. Before anyone says anything--I KNOW it is going on ALL of the time, but still...MUST this be put on the air? This show is being promoted as something for teens to watch to see what 'real life' is like. Good morals and role models to pass on--NOT happening here.

Back to the people on the show. I am quite disgusted with the parents of the infants that were 'given' to the teens for three days. First, despite what the people on the message boards say, I don't believe the infants will suffer irreparable harm because they were away from their parents for three days. Give me a break. But that being said, what the hell was wrong with some of those parents? They handed their kids over to untrained kids and then got all upset over the way they were being treated! No, the teens were NOT abusing the babies--and the parents were constantly monitoring the situation, as was a professional nanny. But these parents got all bent out of shape because their babies cried! I'm sorry, but if a baby cries, it won't rip its belly-button! And a baby will NOT starve if it isn't fed solids for one evening--especially considering it was getting formula! And NOT putting a child into pajamas is NOT a reason to march over and give these teens a lecture on how the child should be treated. I wanted to bitch-slap that mother something awful. MANY would disagree with me, I know...

Anyway, these teens are supposed to have toddlers next, then pre-teens, teens, and finally senior citizens. Is this a good lesson or just exploitative TV? I'm not sure--and I'm not sure whether I will watch till the end. However, it IS something to watch during the wait for GOOD summer TV--such as Burn Notice and Eureka. ;)