It’s been in vogue for several years now: a soldier/airman/marine/sailor quietly returns from his/her tour of duty and surprises one or more family members in a public setting with TV cameras rolling. The result, as often as not, is kids crying their eyes out as they are overwhelmed with emotion. Every time one of these pops up on the news I feel like a voyeur watching what should be a private family moment; no doubt these kids are ultimately thrilled to have their mom/dad/sister/brother back home, but I wonder how they feel about being deliberately put through such an emotional wringer in front of their friends, their classmates, or even the whole country.
Meh. Military families have enough struggles as it is. If a bit of a day in the limelight raises that particular family’s morale, then so be it, I presume they get permission from the family before filming, its not like the Order of the Day reads “*Cpl Bill Tell will surprise daughter at her school play at 1830 hrs. CSM Gessler to lead film crew”.
-AK84, Army Brat.
Kind of a weak pit IMHO Machine Elf.
Change the channel when you see it on the news maybe?
I see what you’re getting at, the act being exploitive and all, but disagree. I’ve spent decades in the military and working for the military. I have to disagree.
I didn’t mind it the first several times I saw it happen, but just like the family’s surprising their kids with a Disney vacation or crazy wedding dances - it gets overdone while people try and copy the formula to try and get a little internet/media attention.
I don’t think it’s worth pitting, but I guess I also get annoyed by people trying to go “viral” by copying things that have worked for others over and over again. It’s trite.
Voyeuristic would be video of what a lot of vets come home and find their wives doing.
Our daughter came home from Afghanistan a few months back. Personally, I wouldn’t want to have been surprised. I’d rather do what we did and have some private moments off camera. If other families feel differently and their soldier wants to surprise them, I’m fine with that. It’s just becoming pretty stale by now and is getting to be part of our creepy troop-worship culture.
The few of these I’ve seen on YouTube were clearly filmed by the family themselves, not by the local or national news programs. So if they’re OK with sharing it on YouTube, who am I to complain?
Thanks to your daughter for her service, BobLibDem.
And I love those surprise homecoming vids. It reminds me of how I felt on other occasions.
Regards,
Shodan
I don’t know if it is Pit-worthy, but I will admit that I’m somewhat desensitized to them, at this point. Local news stations will air such a homecoming (at least) once a week, and it almost seems like an emotionally manipulative tactic to get ratings.
If the families want to share them, more power to them, but after seeing some small child be surprised by a returning parent for the 100th time, forgive me if I change the channel.
I’ve worked at a ballpark off and on for several years, and several times a year they’ll have the family honored on the field as the service member speaks from far away out of the scoreboard.
A few times the service member has snuck onto the field, or was in catcher’s gear or something, and that sweet and touching scenario happens.
What I’ve noticed though - and maybe it’s just me - is that when the service member is speaking on the jumbotron you can see the family on the field start to sneak peeks around them, hoping that hubby/daddy is in the wings waiting to surprise them. It’s kind of sad really - nope, Daddy is still in the Middle East after all.
This thing has raised and changed expectations a bit.
Sometimes they are hard to ignore - there was one at the Dbacks-Phillies game, and I think it was shown a couple times on TV.
Maybe I’m an old grouch, but I don’t particularly care about these reunions. Like sporting event marriage proposals, I think some things should be private. I don’t know these people, why should I care? I mean, I don’t hate the people, or hate that it happened, but why am I supposed to be joyous over two people I’ll never see again? What if they are in reality nasty jerks?
We live in a Reality Show world. If you let it bug you, be prepared to be bugged a lot.
The first few surprise reunions I saw were very cool to watch. Now I’m kind of over them. I think people can and should do what works for their family, but I don’t watch them any more. I do still watch the ones where they are reuniting with their dogs. Those will never get old for me.
Yeah. Buggery is just a fact of life. I hardly even notice anymore.
I recall several instances when fellow servicemen returned home on the QT to surprise wife and family, and instead were themselves unpleasantly surprised.
Call me a misanthrope, but I bet those were the reunions that were really entertaining.
How are you on mopery?
OP, here are a couple of steps you can take to avoid seeing them in the future:
-
Stop responding to clickbait on the internet, whether it be from social media or just in your day-to-day web surfing.
-
Stop watching television news programs. Actually, everybody should do this anyway.
I personally dislike any type of public display of private emotions, such as the things shown in viral videos or on reality shows. But it’s clear that I’m in the minority on this. As long as no one decides to surprise me with a public marriage proposal, or a flash mob reunion, or anything similar, I guess it’s their choice.
I will make an exception if said event takes place on The Colbert Report.
Yeah, can you believe that Alan Funt fellow puts regular people on TV? The world is going to heck in a handbasket, I tell you what.