Baby Borrowers

There is this new show on TV that I saw a preview for the other night called Baby Borrowers. Not sure if anyone else has seen it and/or the previews, but I'm rather interested by the concept. The first episode was on last week. A bit of background for those who don't know the theme... there are five teenage couples (not quite sure on the ages, but all are in college or at least out of high school... can you really call someone in college at 18, 19, or 20 a teen?!, more opinions later on that...) anyways, teen couples who have been together for a while are about to partake in this unique social experiment. The girls start off wearing sympathy bellies and all the couples go to prenatal classes. I haven't actually seen the first episode, but the couples then end up with babies. Babies that are definitely not newborn and I'm guessing the youngest one (only from looking at pictures) is maybe 4 or 5 months old, if even that young. Okay, the babies get dropped off and then starts the parenting. Of course everything is 'safe' for the babies. The real parents are watching across the street and nannies are present in the house with the couples.

I don't exactly know how the first episode went, as to how the couples reacted and what not... but I do know that after the babies comes toddlers, then older children, adolescents, adults, middle aged, and then elderly that these couples have to take care of. Or something like that of course. They all live in houses and I guess have jobs as well. Like I said, I don't know all the exacts, but I think you pretty much get the point.

Opinion time, because everyone is entitled to an opinion, right? I think this show is RIDICULOUS! Okay, maybe it's not THAT bad, but it's definitely not like being a real parent, that's for sure. These couple sure can learn how much it sucks to have to get up at all hours of the night, but they don't get to feel how good it can be at times as well. Becoming a parent involves the whole nine months before the baby is even born, feeling the love for your child before you even get to hold them in your arms. Not just getting a baby handed to you by some stranger and pretending like it's yours. These couples are babysitting, not parenting... They do not feel the same love for these children as they would their own. Would I feel crabby if I was watching someone else's child and got woken up five times during the middle of the night, probably. But if that child were my own, well I might still be a little crabby, but I would also have a heart filled with love for him or her. It's completely different, at least that is how I see it. And so on and so forth with the rest of the ages they will have to deal with.

Now I understand the show is just trying to get these couples to understand the hardships that come along with the aspect of starting a family and I can agree that it's not entirely easy. But it definitely is not without it's rewards either. Parenting is probably the hardest job there is, yet the most rewarding at the same time.

I also have a slight issue with the whole age thing. You want to teach a teen not to have babies, do with it 15 and 16 year olds, not people who are already on their way to starting families. These couples are probably no doubt having sex, this will not stop that... maybe make them think extra hard about protection, but definitely not stop the sex. Come on people... seriously here. So I think I've said this before, I don't condone teen pregnancies, but some of these couples are maybe at a point in their lives where they are ready to start a family. Okay, maybe they should get married first, but in any case I think you get my point. Everyone is different and what might be right for one person may be completely wrong for the next. I would never have pictured myself having a child at 18, but I guess that was just what my 'plan' was and someone up there knew that Jay and I could handle it. Why else would it have happened? Okay, so I can think of many other reasons, but choose to believe the first one.

Okay, actually watching the Baby Borrowers show now and some of my opinions have changed. I do agree that these people are getting some challenges that will accompany parenthood. However I just witnessed an example of how this is not like being an actual parent. One of the girls was trying to feed a baby and the baby was refusing to eat. Instead of acting like a ‘mom’ and doing all you can get your child to eat, she was like swearing and giving up on feeding the child. Obviously she has no love for the child otherwise she wouldn’t have gotten so frustrated right away. I thought it was kind of funny.

Another funny thing is that two of the ‘babies’ are already very close to one. One year olds are completely different than one month olds and pretty much throughout the growth process. I don’t know. These babies also came with instruction manuals. Obviously the parents aren’t going to just drop these babies off without giving these couples some sort of instructions because maybe these children have allergies or what not. But do ‘real’ babies come with manuals, specific times to feed, toys they like, etc… I don’t think so. I also found one comment made by one of the couples pretty funny… ‘We don’t know anything’. Earth to these people, every first time parent goes through the same thing. It learning experience for everyone who has their first child.

In any case, I think I might continue to watch the show just to see how much more hilarious it becomes. Got to love reality television, right? What are they going to come up with next? ‘It’s not TV, it’s birth control’ as advertised by NBC. Birth control for those specific couples maybe, but even those electronic dolls they give you in school don’t do anything. Okay maybe I shouldn’t say that… Enough babbling about this now, got my say out for now…

This week at work has been kind of slow. Good and bad. Nothing pressing to do, but leaves me looking for some things at times. I'd rather have TOO much to do rather than nothing to do. Makes me really feel like I am getting stuff done. But either way I love my job and am really glad to have found it.

Our day went pretty well. Ayden took a good nap again this afternoon. At first I didn't think he would, but all I had to do was go into his room and ask him to try and sleep and he did. He really wanted to do go to the pool again this afternoon, but it wasn't tubes n' toys night tonight so we couldn't. We might go again tomorrow if the weather is still nice enough and we aren't going home. And if he wants to continue to keep going I might decide to get a season pass. Especially if the pool stays as warm as it was yesterday. And the season family pass is only like $45 which really isn't that bad. That is less than it costs for a six week (one time a week) session of swimming lessons at the Y. Definitely more for your money just getting the season pass at the city pool. And tubes n' toys night are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. That is three times a week we could go. I guess I will need to talk to Jay about it.

I managed to get Ayden's invitations done for his birthday. Ayden and I are going to fold them and mail them out tomorrow. He said that he wanted to help so I am all for that. I also got the rest of my flashcards typed up for my vocab words. I just need to print them, glue them, and cut them and then start going through them. All 150 most common words on the GRE. Sounds like fun, eh?

I went rollerblading by myself today. I needed to just get out and be alone. I was having kind of a blah afternoon after spending so much time on the computer. Jay was fine with it and kept Ayden at home while I was gone. I was only gone for about 15 minutes. I just did two miles and it didn't take that long, but I was kind of winded after it. That was because on my way back I was going against the wind and it was harder. I popped my ipod on and just went for it. Being that I am studying audiology I know that I destroyed a few hair cells with the high volume of my music, but I needed it. Plus I was feeling kind of fat today so the exercise did me some good. Too many M&Ms these past few days. I really shouldn't have bought them because I am eating way too many of them. I am self proclaimed CHOCOLATE LOVER!

CIAO! LOVE ME!