TV needs to leave baby business

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, June 20, 2008

Photo by The Daily Journal

Jeff Hage

NBC television claims to be getting into the birth control business starting next Wednesday.

That’s when its new self-proclaimed “social experiment” airs on network television.

Reality television hits a new level of unbelieveability with the airing of NBC's The Baby Borrowers.

The show takes multiple teenage couples who think having a baby might be a good idea and scares them into abstinance by making them instant parents.

They will be asked to look after a baby (between 6 and 11 months) for three days, then a toddler, a pre-teen, teenagers and finally an elderly person.

The show has already been criticized as child exploitation and a significant risk to the babies and toddlers involved.

But press materials suggest that the teens are "under 24-hour supervision by nannies and the real parents who are stationed next door, watching via monitor, and able to step in to “save the day” any time.

It’s just like real life, the show’s producers proclaim about the six-week series.

Thinking back 20 years ago when we started having kids, I was reminded of the dozens of stories that still put a smile on my face. There were hard times, funny times, and times I wouldn’t trade for anything.

And now that two of my boys are out of high school and my youngest is ready to start high school I can proudly say: There was never a day that my boys could have scared me into not wanting to have kids!

How could it? I learned one of the biggest lessons of my life the day my first son was born. My wife had a C-section and this proud dad got to spend the first hours of that little guy’s life with him while mom was in recovery. It created a bond that is still strong today.

As I walked out of the hospital that night, I exited through the emergency room doors where a family was huddled together crying the most painful tears I have yet to see in my life. Their loved one had just died in a horrific car crash.

As funny as it might sound, I have always thought that my son replaced that accident victim here on Earth.

My oldest son eating spaghetti for the first time never scared me from having more kids. It was a good tomato-sauce mess, though!

My middle boy, who graduated from high school in Chippewa Falls, Wis. two weeks ago, was the most trying — but didn’t stop us from having a third child.

He did try our patience, though.

For example, he didn’t like dirty diapers. I can’t tell you how many times when he was one or two that we would find him in the crib in his birthday suit and his diaper flung halfway across him room. With an arm like that, I thought he might be a baseball star!

My wife will always remember the day she was awoken after about two hours of sleep after working a night shift to find him standing in the middle of the kitchen dropping raw eggs onto the floor one-by-one with the most sinister look on his face. If he was looking for attention, he got it.

He also got my attention the day I was standing outside our apartment complex talking to a woman on the first level and thought it was starting to rain.

Nope.

Son number two was on the balcony above with his diaper dropped and was going potty on daddy’s head!

My first son has totaled two vehicles. My second son smashed my car on my own driveway just weeks after buying it.

We’ve lived through it. We’ve also lived through girlfriends we, as parents, have absolutely loved and a goth girlfriend — well, enough said.

My youngest has been a challenge, too. He’s a head-strong kid with one stubborn attitude.

But at the end of the day I have three of the best friends a dad could have — and I wouldn’t have had that today if a TV show had scared me into not having children!

je