Thursday, July 3, 2008

In which I rant about teenagers and teenage pregnancy...

Has anyone else caught the show "Baby Borrowers"? Normally, I'm not a network reality TV kind of person, but the husband insisted I watch it. The basic premise is 5 teenage couples are given responsibilities of adulthood - house, job, and kid. They start with babies and move on to toddlers, pre-teens, teens, and senior citizens (!?). And, per usual, I have several issues with this show:

  • They put them up in way nice housing...I mean, the couples are in duplexes on a cul-de-sac, so they all live in the same area. Nice furniture, nice kitchens, brand new baby furniture and supplies, brand new vehicle, etc. Uh, hello...NBC? Do you reeeeeally think that teenage parents have this sh*t available? Let's make it more realistic. Put them in single wide trailers with garage sale furniture, 20 year old car (with a $1000 sound system, of course), dead end job.
  • One chick in particular is SUCH. AN. ANCHOR. She made the guy do everything, she went to work and bitched about the job the whole time. I'd have fired her lazy ass. Boyfriend? Wake the hell up, dude...dump her before she gets herself preggers.
  • Where are these kids coming from? What has changed in the mindset of the teenager? There is no damn way I was going to let myself get pregnant before the age of...I don't know...30??? I waited until I was done with grad school, done with my clinical internship, and had enough time in at my job to have a good amount of paid maternity leave.
  • Part of this animosity comes from the fact that I have a niece who had a child before I had my own. This girl is 12 years younger than me, not in college, doesn't look like she will ever attend college or any higher education whatsoever, and decides to have not just one baby, but TWO. And I don't think she's done. She wants a girl. I was utterly, unbelievably furious when I found out that she was having a baby. She was not raised this way, although my husband's opinion is that my sister had "too short a leash" on her and her brother growing up. I honestly don't know what the problem is, but I do know my sister is being an enabler right now. I know too many couples - educated, gainfully employed, who have to resort to medical science to have even one baby. Why is it that these guys can have one whenever the f**k they feel like it? And this girl's brother, seeing how angry I was when she was pregnant the first time? Actually said, "Don't worry, I won't be that stupid". Um, yeah. Dumbass was that stupid. His girlfriend popped out a kid last year. Honestly? I don't really want my kid to be around that kind of thinking.
  • In brighter news, my oldest nephew (he is 9 years younger than me) and his wife are going to have a baby. My brother is going to go totally overboard with this kid. He loves Molly to pieces...she brings him book after book to read to her when she sees him, which is cute. He's this burly truck driver looking guy, works construction, reading to this 3 year old.

*Sigh.* Namaste. I'm a smidge calmer now. Maybe I should take Baby Borrowers off the DVR season pass. I might have a coronary if I watch it again.

3 comments:

Kat said...

You beat me to it! I was going to write a post on this today too. I think this is my new favorite show. My hubby and I just could not stop laughing and yelling. That one chic needs a good smackdown. She is such a BRAT!!!!
I'm thinking that they should show this series in high school health classes.
On the other side of it, I would NEVER be able to let some young kids take care of my baby for FOUR days! NO WAY!!!! I don't care if that nanny was always on hand, NO WAY! Those poor babies were so upset because they missed their parents!
Although I do understand why the parents wanted to join the show. It is a valuable lesson they are helping to teach.
I always wanted to be a young mom, but not so much that I wouldn't make sure I was prepared first. I wanted a good husband, a house, and a good job first. I had my first child at 26 (which I always thought was old- hehe) but looking back, it was the perfect age for me.

Melissa said...

I've never heard of this show. But this? Is why I don't watch network TV. Shudder.

Jenn said...

I watched it. I was into it at first but come on... they only have the baby for three days! What can you really learn in three days? That's not real stress. And even though the parents are close by, what about the baby, how confused are they?