Pregnancy
Discussion Title: Baby borrowers
Created by: gail
Created on: Tue, 06/17/2008 - 12:35pm.
Created by: gail
Created on: Tue, 06/17/2008 - 12:35pm.
I know, I said I wouldn't be back, and I'm not, but I wanted to reach everybody I could about this issue. I sent this e-mail to everybody on my address list, and then I thought of all of you.
I read yesterday in the paper about a TV show that is going to begin airing on June 25 on NBC. I was really upset about the show and I wanted to invite you to join me if you happen to agree with me.
I'm sending this to everyone on my address list, so if you don't remember who I am, Sorry!
Just wanted you to know, as quickly as possible, that I will regretfully end my 45 year long relationship with what has been a fine network if you air a single episode of baby borrowers. That you have condoned removing children for 72 hours from their primary caregivers is abominable. Your purported admirable motive blinded you to participating in human slavery and abuse.
It is no longer hard for me to believe that no one in your programming department had the wits to consider the effect on these children as a counterbalance to cheap programming.
You need to foot the bill for parenting classes for those who rented out their children. That the adults knew the children were safe is interesting, but the children could not have known that they were themselves safe.
How could you do such a thing?
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Replied: 6/20/2008 2:19pm.
The children are perfectly safe, the parents are next door watching with cameras and can intervene at any time, and there are paramedics and nannies also on standby. Do your research before you bash the show.
Replied: 6/20/2008 2:26pm.
Are you serious? This show is more safe than taking a child to any daycare across the country. The parents were right there the entire time watching everything and could intervene at any time. Aside from the teens that were with the children (2 teens per child) there was also a fulltime nanny there, and the crew. At what point is this detrimental to the child? There's no separation anxiety if the parents are THERE. There's no "slavery and abuse" as you put it. Are you out of your mind? Someone is wound too tightly.
Replied: 6/20/2008 2:39pm.
Well, giving your kid to some clueless spoiled teenagers is a bit different than daycare, but characterizing it as slavery and abuse is pretty freaking extreme. Personally, I would never put my kid on a show like that, and to find out that they actually DIDN'T GET PAID!! Wow, people will do anything to get on tv I guess.
Hopefully, in the long run, it will help some teens realize to think before they act.
Replied: 6/20/2008 2:59pm.
The children did not see the parents. It is true that the parents are not anxious. I don't care too much about if the parents are anxious, they are parents, they can know that they will have their children back any time they want.
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The babies did NOT know where the parents were. The toddlers did NOT know where the parents were. The babies were not familiar with the teenagers who were caring for them. The toddlers were not familiar with the teenagers who were caring for them. Healthy infants with an appropriate attachment to their mothers get anxious when they are left with ANYONE else. The anxiety manifests itself as soon as the child notices that the mother is not in the room.
I'm not arguing about whether the children were safe. I'm arguing that unnecessary separation is ABUSIVE. Was this separation necessary?
Slavery--did it occur before there was money? You bet. Exploiting human beings for personal gain whether it be monetary or not is SLAVERY.
Do YOUR research. Somebody is way too casual.
Replied: 6/20/2008 2:42pm.
I'd like to offer a little different perspective. That of a child who went through something similar. When I was 5 my sister had to go to a hospital out of town for an extended period. My mom went and stayed with her, and I stayed with neighbors who knew my parents well. I was in a safe environment and my dad came home every night so we could sleep in our own beds. But I needed my mommy. I developed a very close relationship with one of the ladies who cared for me and her husband. All through elementary school I went and visited them and talked to them about things. They were wonderful nurturing people, but I needed my mommy. My mommy came home and was with me through all those years. She did nice things for me and told me she loved me, but I blew it off. I thought she didn't mean it. I had learned in that short period of time that she was in the hospital with my sister that I was not the center of her universe, and it shattered my world. It really doesn't take long for a 5 year old brain to break that attachment. But it takes years and years (and counseling,) to change it back. In this case there really wasn't a practical alternative. But if there is any way to avoid this sort of thing, I can tell you it's worth any inconvenience.
Replied: 6/20/2008 5:17pm.
Wow, some serious debate on this show. The sad thing is, the more we talk about it and create controversy, the more people will watch. I actually think that it is fantastic that we are having this discussion. I wish more entertainment would spark this type of debate.
Most of us tend to agree that we wouldn't put our kids on that show, and the parents who did have their reasons... good or bad, and they have to deal with that choice. I'm very torn on this, but I have to say that it breaks my heart a bit to see the kids screaming on the promos, not knowing where their parents are.
Replied: 6/20/2008 7:49pm.
google baby borrowers, somebody has a list of sponsors.
Viewer protest kept the OJ Simpson show off the air. That was very cool.
Anybody can e-mail or call the sponsors.
Point your friends to this message board, or to the other sites that address this controversy.
Even if we don't stop the show from airing, we can try to prevent a second season of five infants, five toddlers; needlessly, heedlessly separated from their mommies.
You can also e-mail NBC, don't let them suck you into being a consultant or whatever, it just wastes your time with a survey, click on the other button. Also, contact your local NBC affiliate. They are a lot easier to contact
Replied: 6/21/2008 5:41am.
It does not matter in the least that these children had their parents next door and professional childcare supporting them. They did not have their Mummies. What does NEXT DOOR mean to a baby or toddler. Try explaining that to them.
Do you really think that all a wee child needs is someone to fill one end and empty the other?
They need consistency of care and bonding with their main care givers. This show breaks that.
Replied: 6/21/2008 9:46am.
What NBC's "documentary" documents is a new version of the Milgram experiment. Except that instead of two strangers, you have parents and babies, and instead of a person in a lab coat, you have somebody who offers you a week in a luxury condo in Idaho. And instead of an adult acting like he or she is distressed . . . You have real distress.
And if you watch it, it's a different kind of pornography, where there is no pleasure of any kind involved. Just real people, tiny ones, in real pain.
google Milgram. Remember your psychology class. I couldn't find a site that I could get the video on, so go to your local college psyche department and negotiate with them to show it to you and a bunch of your neighbors.
We've somehow done time and space travel, and we are in Germany in the 1930's and it's not a bunch of mental defectives and homosexuals and Jews, it's babies. Click your heels and lift your arm and utter "Hiel NBC!" if you don't tell some friends, and contact some sponsors.
Replied: 6/21/2008 2:10pm.
Wow, Gail, that's some pretty strong imagery. I don't think the people involved are evil, just ignorant of what this really can do to children. I do agree that it should stop, but attacks like this go a bit too far.