TM 236: What does respect mean to you?
Apparently, I have a limit.
Yes, I know, it's a surprise to me, too. I'm in show business. I hang out with Tony Stark. I've been known to watch a lot of reality TV. And I'm part of a superhero team with origins that are more than a little bit unusual. In other words, I've seen a lot, I can put up with a lot, and I certainly try not to be judgmental about other people's choices.
But last night I happened to flip on the television, and I found myself watching Baby Borrowers, and I realized -- yes, that's it.
Limit.
The premise of this show, if you don't know, is that 18-20 year olds who think they are mature enough to live on their own and be parents are set up in (spacious, comfortable, like the ones all teen parents live in) suburban houses, given fake jobs (because they've apparently never had real ones?) and then given children to look after for a few days, while their every move is filmed. Other people's children. Actual children. As in, somebody thought it was a good idea to turn their child over to a TV production company, to hand over to a couple of young people who presumably were chosen because they are photogenic and would have entertaining personality conflicts. Rather than because, you know, they are actual suited for taking care of children.
And that's the amazing part to me. Sad as it is, I'm fairly used to seeing people who need to be in front of a camera in order to validate their own existence. I may or may not have spent most of the Fourth of July with the "What Not to Wear" marathon, and watched a young woman cry her eyes out because she was forced to throw away the fake raccoon tail she liked to wear on the back of her jeans. It's sad to see people who don't have any more respect for themselves than that.
But somehow it crosses another line when people don't even have enough respect for their children to see them as autonomous human beings rather than -- props in somebody else's scene, I guess that's what I'm saying. They're not accessories. They're not factors to be manipulated in a 'social experiment.' Nobody is. Anybody who loses sight of that doesn't really understand the meaning of respect.
Yes, I know, it's a surprise to me, too. I'm in show business. I hang out with Tony Stark. I've been known to watch a lot of reality TV. And I'm part of a superhero team with origins that are more than a little bit unusual. In other words, I've seen a lot, I can put up with a lot, and I certainly try not to be judgmental about other people's choices.
But last night I happened to flip on the television, and I found myself watching Baby Borrowers, and I realized -- yes, that's it.
Limit.
The premise of this show, if you don't know, is that 18-20 year olds who think they are mature enough to live on their own and be parents are set up in (spacious, comfortable, like the ones all teen parents live in) suburban houses, given fake jobs (because they've apparently never had real ones?) and then given children to look after for a few days, while their every move is filmed. Other people's children. Actual children. As in, somebody thought it was a good idea to turn their child over to a TV production company, to hand over to a couple of young people who presumably were chosen because they are photogenic and would have entertaining personality conflicts. Rather than because, you know, they are actual suited for taking care of children.
And that's the amazing part to me. Sad as it is, I'm fairly used to seeing people who need to be in front of a camera in order to validate their own existence. I may or may not have spent most of the Fourth of July with the "What Not to Wear" marathon, and watched a young woman cry her eyes out because she was forced to throw away the fake raccoon tail she liked to wear on the back of her jeans. It's sad to see people who don't have any more respect for themselves than that.
But somehow it crosses another line when people don't even have enough respect for their children to see them as autonomous human beings rather than -- props in somebody else's scene, I guess that's what I'm saying. They're not accessories. They're not factors to be manipulated in a 'social experiment.' Nobody is. Anybody who loses sight of that doesn't really understand the meaning of respect.