Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Baby Borrowers.

Bizarrely, this reminds me of Mothers Acting Up co-founder Beth Osnes’ show, (M)other.

Many of you may receive Mothering Magazine’s weekly email and activism alerts and therefore may have read the following.

But in the event you missed it, please think about letting NBC know this is a bad idea.

Tell NBC to Stop The Baby Borrowers

Presented as a "unique social experiment" the reality TV show "The Baby Borrowers" places real infants in the care of unrelated teen couples to "test" their ability to withstand the demands of parenthood and their relationship's strength to survive the pressure.

The show originated as a BBC production. This fall, NBC is rolling out its own version for a US audience. It films couples between the ages of 16 and 19 attempting to care for infants, toddlers, children, and eventually teenagers. Local authorities, concerned about the physical and emotional risk to the children, called on the BBC to cancel the show. Their requests were ignored, and social workers hoping to oversee the filming were turned away. Despite the protests in the UK, NBC seems equally determined to roll out their production of the show, describing it as an opportunity for the couples to "...peer into the future and see what they (and their partners) might be like if they remain together and decide to build a family."

The Natural Child Project is voicing its concerns to NBC and calling on producers to entertain people without jeopardizing anyone's mental health and happiness. Read the Open Letter to NBC by Jan Hunt, Director of The Natural Child Project. Send your letter of concern to:

Mr. Jeffrey Zucker
President
NBC Entertainment
3000 W. Alameda Avenue
Burbank, CA 91523

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you are way off base, the show is excellent at informing teens of what they are getting into, and I think will be a message of awareness to other teenagers. The toddlers themselves aren't in any real danger, their parents, paramedics, and nannies are all next door incase anything goes wrong. I think the show is a great idea and I can't wait to watch, boycotting it would just be hurting your cause.

Anonymous said...

i agree with punky, it looks like this show might actually make a statement and show those teens what they are really going to get themselves into. i cant wait to see how it goes next wednesday night

Grant said...

I'm torn on this one. On one hand, it seems to offer a good message to teens, especially with all the teen pregnancy stuff in the news. On the other hand, I wouldn't really want to volunteer my child for it. Maybe if the paid for a college fund or something, but from what I understand, they paid nothing.

Interesting discussion.

Anonymous said...

I think that parents with teens should watch this show with their teenagers, especially if they are sexually active. Maybe it will spark conversation and debate. Something has to be done. There were over 730,000 teen pregnancies in the U.S. last year.