Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Baby Borrowers: The Pre-Teens Come to Stay

I LOVE this show.
For those of you who haven't seen it, here's the idea: Take teen couples who think they are ready for a family and let them experience what it's really like to be an adult. It's an experiment of sorts where the couples are given a home, jobs and a family to care for. They even "borrow" children for 3 days (with an onsite nanny for oversight only and the parents watching via a televised feed). The teen couples first got babies, then toddlers. This week they had to care for pre-teens and they still have teenagers and elderly "parents" to come.
I think this is the greatest experiment and should be mandatory for teens to watch. These teen couples came in, pretty sure about their ability to care for children and at some point each of them has found themselves stressed and doubting their ability to finish this project. Kind of like with real parenting, only the project lasts a lifetime!!!
Some of the relationships are starting to dissolve under the pressure and the teens are actually starting to have a more realistic view of what it means to cross the threshold into adulthood.
There have been some pleasant surprises, some teens you can tell will (one day!!) be very good parents, and some who aren't as prepared as they thought. Some of them are still completely clueless (you can't just change the diaper, you also have to wipe your child's bottom!!!).
I can't wait to see how all of the teen couples feel about the experiment once it's over, and how they feel about pursuing parenthood now!

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