Yep. Not only could they use the break, I’m sure, they’ve also discovered that their kids, while of course precious snowflakes, are PVC crafted teflon coated precious snowflakes. They’re tough. 3 days of sub-par caregiving, as long as it’s not actually abusive, is not going to break them.
Just watched the first three days with the babies. I’m not sure if this was a repeat – there’s another episode right after with toddlers. I’m hoping they’ll repeat the toddler episode, because right now I’m sick of whiny teenagers.
I’ll confess to being disappointed that two of the couples did really well. They’ll be the couples that wannabe parents will identify with.
Bets on whether Alicea still has a boyfriend when this is over? He looks at her with such contempt.
Break them? Hell, once they get over the “I’m not a precious snowflake” realization, most kids find sub-par caregiving to be frakking awesome! Chocolate bars for breakfast! No baths! Stay up as late you want! No stupid “Don’t put a chair on the sofa, climb up, then jump onto your sister” rules!
I just put this on the TiFaux because of you guys, and now Kelly is driving my blood pressure up. I blame you. “He didn’t even ask me how I felt” - because you volunteered to put on a fat suit? Jesus H. Christ on a lilypad. KILL.
The belly thing was ridiculous; it seemed like she just didn’t want to look fat, which is pretty shallow. And when you’re pregnant, sorry, you don’t get a choice. Since then, though, I’ve thought that Kelly has been one of the better ones when it comes to dealing with the kids. She actually played with their baby and kept him happy, which was good. Seemed to do okay with the toddlers last night, too, although throwing the hissy when she left the house and the toddlers unattended was quite uncool. The nanny should’ve called her on it, too, when she came back.
I never expected the meltdown from Sasha last night; she and Jordan had done so well with the little baby, it was strange to see her struggle so much. I reckon she was stressed from three days of crying, plus she seemed to feel like the mother was personally attacking her when she was just trying to give them criticism. On the plus side, they seem to me to be the most mature couple; when something’s wrong, they actually talk to each other. Imagine!
Alicea. Ugh. So not ready to be a grown-up. News flash: being a parent is about putting what you want and even need aside, and putting your child first, because they’re counting on you. So you just freakin’ do it. It was encouraging to see her bond with Isaiah a little bit that first evening, but it didn’t look like that lasted long.
Maybe the teens should have watched a few episodes of Supernanny before taking on preteens. Or maybe it wouldn’t have helped. What’s up with little Hannah? I can’t imagine screaming at an adult – even a teenager.
Hannah’s mom says “You can’t reason with a seven-year-old.” Not that one, obviously.
I only watched the first one and would like a clarification on one major point. This wasn’t really addressed, but it seemed like these teenaged couples at the very least slept in the same bed! Doesn’t this undermine the lesson they’re supposed to learn. Did I miss something?
Well, the show makes sleeping together look humdrum and boring, so maybe they are teaching that lesson.
I looked around (not too hard) trying to find out how old these kids are. I’m not a good judge of age – the surfer chick (Morgan) looks mid-20’s to me – but they all look to be older teens, 18 or 19, except for Kelly, who looks pretty young.
I was watching Hannah and it seems she knew exactly how to manipulate her mom. Heck, her screaming fit brought her mother all the way back to the house to brow-beat the contestants into coddling her a little!
My daughters learned early that screaming does not produce positive results. Once they calmed down and could express themselves using words again they got attention.
As a teenager, how much hanky-panky would you engage in if your bedroom was full of cameras being watched by the parents of the kids you’re sitting for, not to mention numerous TV studio personnel? With that much surveillance in place, I doubt anything would happen.
Bumping even though there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in the show. I’m interested in everyone’s thoughts about whether this was at all worthwhile.
The final episode is on tonight. Apparently it’s a follow-up panel discussion with the teens – none of whom are still together a year later.
The setup wasn’t very realistic. Only three days with each age group, the teens lived in nice houses, they had jobs and cars, no money worries, nobody going to school, etc.
But it seems like they might have learned something, even if it’s only that living with your boyfriend/girlfriend isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But who knows how much of their behavior (I’m looking at you, Daton) was influenced by the TV cameras.
Anyone know if they plan on doing this again?
I probably won’t watch it again if they do. As far as social experiments go, I thought they did this one as well as they could. You can’t expect to take children away from their real parents for any substantial amount of time for teenagers to take care of. Three days was about as good as it could get. The baby and the toddler episodes were probably the most eye opening for the couples. I really didn’t like the tween and teen episodes, and the elderly folks while interesting didn’t really do it for me either.
I’m not at all suprised that none of the couples are still together. Young love is rarely substantial enough to stand the test of time.
I haven’t watched it.
Do only the girls have to wear the pregnancy bellies? I’m just sayin’…empathy can be a good thing.
I missed the first episode, with the girls and the pregnancy bellies but I heard that Kelly, for one, didn’t take kindly to it.
I don’t mean to be sexist, but I can see a teenage guy thinking that putting up with a pregnant girlfriend counts as sharing the load. But I’m biased. My first husband was no help at all through four pregnancies, I think because his mom had nine, and all but one were born at home, on the kitchen table.
It’s hard for this old lady to judge whether the show made its point. I already know that raising kids is hard. I can see a teenager looking at the teens on the show and thinking they could do a better job, or rationalizing the difficulty with “It’d be different if it were your own babies”, etc.