The End of the Baby Borrowers
As I continued watching and thought about how worried everyone was about the welfare of the babies during their brief separation, I realized that the group that had really been overlooked was the teens. Not the teens caring for the kids but the teens that they got to parent as part of the experiment. I was really saddened by the fighting going on right under the nose of the teen whose parents were recently divorced. I mean, he really seemed to be affected by that. He tried to come off as tough in his introduction, but you could tell his heart was hurting when all the screaming was going on. And the boy that was pulling down all the clothes in the closet and climbing out on the roof... How'd he get through the show's psychological screening? Because I'm thinking there are some problems there. My own son is that age and even on his worst days, he would not go into my room or the room of someone entrusted with his care and be so disrespectful and destructive.
I think the babies fared much better than the older kids, if you ask me. If you missed the Lessons Learned episode, they had Dr. Drew there talking about the resiliency in young babies and how if there was any stress involved, that it would have been soon repaired after they were back in the care of mom and dad. I think that's much more likely to be true than what some have proposed, which is that these three days are going to scar the babies for life and they will grow up to have trust issues for the rest of their lives. The teens, on the other hand, I'm not sure what kind of affect this could have on them. Even Dr. Drew said in a TV Guide interview, however:
"No one knows the answer to the question, How much time can you be away from your kids and not damage them? How much time can you work, keep your kid in daycare? This show is daycare on steroids! [Laughs] The part that was hardest for me to watch as a parent was the toddler section, when you know the kids are consciously feeling the separation anxiety. But the parents were going in and out all the time. We met all the [borrowed] kids, and they seem as healthy as can be. But at the end of the day, we don’t know, that’s the bottom line."
Also, news to me from the Lessons Learned episode was when they talked to some of the teens from Gloucester, Mass., where the teen pregnancy pact was supposed to have taken place. The teens said that they weren't involved in any pact and that the first they'd heard of it was on the news. Even the mayor is now denying that there was a pact.
In the end, I hope that in the homes of teens out there, conversations are being started about ways to prevent pregnancies from happening before folks are ready to take on all the responsibilities of parenting. I hope that the teens who watched got to see a different side of parenting and they realize that it's not a big bowl of cherries all the time.
Comments
Thanks for introducing me to the show. Having caught it this late, now I have to find a way to view all the previous episodes
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M
PS: Some cool baby stuff that I found on the net…
i watched the show other than the geriatric visit. it was interesting. it did strain the teens relationships as they all broke up in the end. i think because they could each see the worst of one another when pushed to the limit. the guys all proved to be pretty stable; rising to the challenge of parenting even when it was tough. and the girls seemed unable to stick with a task when it gets too hard at times. i see that in myself, and am glad i have a husband to help carry the burden when i feel i cant.
as for the kid that was pulling down clothes in the closet, it seemed to me like the producers told him to raise a little trouble and he was trying to. it did not seem authentic. just sort of silly/sarcastic. it was fun to watch the showdown with the teen parents and his mom tho, b/c she obviously was in denial about his disrespectful nature.