Posted by
reasonmclucus on Monday, July 14, 2008 4:55:39 PM
Babies shouldn't be used as props on any kind of television
show. Babies are human beings, not objects to be used for a
television network's profit. If the purpose of the NBC
series
"The Baby
Borrowers," was to give young teen couples an idea of
what dealing with a baby would be like, the network didn't need
to use real babies.
Professional educators have been teaching teens about being a parent
without using real babies.
North
Carolina Cooperative Extension
centers in Cumberland, Richmond and Scotland counties won an award for
its “Baby, Think It Over” program in which over 500 high school
students experienced parenting using dolls programmed to function like
a baby on a normal 24 hour schedule.
The Mexican state of
Chihuahua
as well as various areas in the U.S. and Britain have used more
advanced dolls made by
RealCare for
similar programs.
Hollywood has some very capable technical
people who could have worked with RealCare to make the dolls even more
effective. However, that wouldn't have had the entertainment
value of showing real babies and might have cost
more. NBC obviously didn't produce this program to
help teenagers. It produced the program to make money.
If NBC wants a program to educate teen viewers about the realities of
taking care of babies, it can do so using professional actors
with child psychologists helping to write the scripts and
show the actors how to deal with different situations.
Programs could have the characters make mistakes and show the
consequences of those mistakes.
NBC could accomplish a similar goal in a reality show context by using
real young couples who are first time parents. Child
psychologists could monitor their activities and help them correct
mistakes. These psychologists could explain to viewers what the
couples were doing right or wrong.