Is anyone else still watching these shows? Which one do you like better?
I like the two hour format of Trading Spouses, and I like the gathering/party with friends and family. It gives the families something to do, new people to meet, new reactions. (The Wife Swap families have looked kinda bored after a couple of days.)
I think Wife Swap is doing a great job of pairing the couples – last night’s episode was like matter and anti-matter, with the lackadaisacal animal rights activist (who wasn’t very active) and the hunter’s wife who spends most of her time cooking and cleaning.
Best line: When Animal lady was told that her dogs had been put outside during the day. “They can’t live outside, they’re adopted!”
I liked Animal lady’s daughter, but didn’t see enough of Hunter man’s kids to tell what they were like. I liked Dreadlocks guy’s comment about his new wife being judgmental – he probably gets that a lot. I liked him, but the locks needed fixing.
Anyway, I like both shows. Didn’t think I would when they were first advertised. What I get from watching is that people who appear to be weird and dysfunctional can make weird but functional families.
It makes me wonder though – were some of the stranger families just lucky to find each other, or did they mold themselves to fit?
If it’s anything like the original UK Wife Swap, the producers clearly went out of their way to select the weirdest families possible, and deliberately matched them with the most incompatible people possible. It would be no fun if everyone got along.
I meant the original families fitting each other so well – they seem weird to me, but for the most part, they’re well adjusted to each other, they’re happy to be reunited, and glad to have their original moms.
Do you suppose that means that my family might seem weird to an outsider? Probably.
I’m not one prone to violence, but I had an overwhelming urge to defy the laws of physics, reach thru the TV set, and throttle the “tree-hugger” mom.
First, did anyone notice her reaction was actually worse when she heard about her dogs than when she heard about her daughter? Then she has the audacity to proclaim she is the “Best mother ever on the face of the planet”.
That is simply an insult to all the really hard-working mom’s out there who are good mothers.
Dreadlocks dad was the only one of the four I liked. Animal rights mom was a complete flake, South Carolina mom was a control freak with bizarre ideas about patriotism, and SC dad was practically wearing a “Proud to be a redneck stereotype” t-shirt.
I wonder if either of the moms will recognize when they see the show that they had the same predjudice regarding the other’s house:
What a terrible life this other woman must have to get up at a different time from me and have different standards of cleanliness. It doesn’t matter that this other household works for these people and they seem to be happy with their lives, they’re so different from me that they must be bad people and secretly unhappy with their lives. And their children. My god, what kind of parent raises their children differently from how I raise mine?
Oh, and Mr. “This is how we do things in the South”? Perhaps you weren’t paying attention, but your new wife was also from the South (Arkansas).
On the other hand, they were all pretty straightforward about how they felt. The rich dad from last week is easily my least favorite person on the show so far. He grates on me worse than any of this week’s parents because he’s the kind of guy who can spend the entire night, every night, being obnoxious jerk, insulting his guest, and then play Mr. innocent.
And here I am, after posting the above about not judging others merely because their lifestyle is different from yours, but I find the idea of a mother who doesn’t work having more nannies than kids to be such a foreign concept that it almost doesn’t register. I know several working moms who would love to have the opportunity to stay at home so that they could spend time with their kids.
I’m not trying to imply that the kids are neglected; if the nannies are competent, there’s no reason why the kids won’t be emotionally healthy. I just cannot comprehend having the opportunity to spend a lot of time with your kids and instead spending all day, every day shopping, working out, and getting beauty treatments.
I could see redeeming qualities in both Millionaire Wife and Woodsplitting Wife. I personally wouldn’t want my life to be like either of theirs, but I sorta liked both of them. Millionaire Wife was obnoxious at first, but she genuinely seemed to be trying at least towards the end, and it’s really not such a stretch to see why she’s the way she is. She’s never HAD to do anything in her life. As such, she almost came across as an innocent to me.
Woodsplitting wife was a woman I can respect, although I think she works too damn hard and does too much for her kids. She seems happy though. Interestingly enough, I told Mr. Athena that if I was forced to have one of these lives, I’d probably choose Woodsplitter Wife’s life. Sure, I’d love to be a millionaire, but not if it meant having to shop for 4 hours a day. Kill me please. Of course, that was before I found out Woodsplitter spent 6 hours splitting wood. OK, I’ll shop.
Treehugger Wife and Confederate Wife, though, were a different story. I wanted to strangle BOTH those women. Treehugger was just a fookin’ idiot IMO. Anyone who equates doing the dishes with slavery and allows her house to get that dirty when she has NO job and only ONE kid is a lazy ass slacker. Confederate wife was just as bad in her own way. There’s more to life than having children who say “yes, ma’am” and a clean house. And not sleeping with your husband for what, 11 years? That’s not a marriage, that’s roommates.
Treehugger’s kid is just heading in the same direction as Treehugger Mom. She’ll grow up to be another drain on society. Doing chores ain’t slavery, kid. Get a life.
And what’s that about Treehugger Dad saying hanging the flag is “tacky”? I can understand saying “I’m not a patriot” or “We don’t want to show our politics that way” but “tacky”? I’m hardly a flag-waving gung-ho American, but putting a flag up in your front yard isn’t tacky.
[hijack] I know of a quite a few couples who sleep in separate rooms. (We do.) But the key word is “sleep.”
Room temperature is the main problem (snoring and farting can be fixed) – with older couples, you’ll find one who likes a cold room and another who wants it warm, one who wants a fan going or a window open, and another who says that’s like sleeping outside.
But I didn’t see any real show of affection with the Hunting & Fishing couple. They do indeed seem like roommates.
I saw nothing to indicate that he wasn’t a patriot. A person can object to the display of the American flag on his property while still supporting and defending the principals for which it stands. I don’t know about this particular family, but to many the objection isn’t to the flag itself, but to the idea, expressed explicitly by SC mom, that not to display a flag is unpatriotic.
Right on. And Aletha’s reason IIRC was “to let people know we’re Americans,” as if (a) no non-citizen would ever fly Old Glory, and (b) it’s Us vs. Them; those who don’t fly flags aren’t Americans, and ought to be shunned. This coming from a woman who, at her own house, flies or allows to fly the flag of the Confederacy, a defeated and discredited enemy of the United States. (I say this as a person who’s eligible to join the Sons of the Confederacy, the boy version of the D.A.R. Celebrating the Old South is one thing; celebrating the Confederacy is another, akin to actual treason in my book.)
The tree-huggers were mighty silly, but the Hunter Mom was pure evil. And I felt so very, very sorry for Hunter Dad.
Probably.