I have been dying to get on my soap-box about reality TV and this morning CNN was kind enough to offer me a platform!  No, I don’t have a column on CNN, they posted this link about MTV’s upcoming season of Teen Mom.  I want to be up front about this, I have never watched this show.

In fact, I am pretty against reality TV in general, I do admit to watching The Biggest Loser because I think this show is inspiring and beneficial to helping people who are struggling with weight loss, in fact I would love to see Biggest Loser do a show with teenagers, perhaps the trainers wouldn’t be quite so harsh with them, but a program that would teach them about exercise, healthy eating and taking care of your mental health; but I digress here.

I have also watched American Idol, but when a friend’s daughter tried out for it and I found out how the show actually chooses their contestants, I swore off that.  Ok, you got me, I watch Dancing With The Stars too, but I swear that is the last one!

Here’s why I don’t like reality TV, I think it is exploitive.  I think people who shove their children in front of TV cameras inside their homes should be arrested for exploiting their children.  They are making money off their kids and it’s not right.  Those children should be entitled to have as normal a home life as possible.  Instead every single thing they do is documented by a camera, they cannot go out in public without someone shoving a camera in their face.  It is bad enough this country is celebrity obsessed but to deliberately thrust your child into that type of lifestyle is wrong.  “Kate Plus Eight,” Kate Gosselin has stated that she needs to provide for her children so in order to do that, she thrusts them into the spotlight basically making them earn their own living, something us common folks call child labor which I believe is against the law. 

Now this MTV “Teen Mom” is just as exploitive; I have read the updates on the moms from the first season is US Magazine.  The kids (I will refer to them as kids because really at 16 that’s what they are) are nicely dressed, their children are nicely dressed, they have their own apartments.  How are they managing all of this?  Well they are getting paid to tell “their” story.  Their “success” is a promotion for teen pregnancy!  Look at me, I got knocked up and got my own TV show, now I have money so I can have a nice apartment and nice clothes.  Well guess what?  That doesn’t happen for everyone, not every woman who gets pregnant young gets their own TV show.  The reality of teen pregnancy is that it is a hard life, trying to put this little person first before your own needs, making sure they have everything that they need.  You sacrifice; a LOT.  You go without; a LOT!  You no longer come first at a time in your life when you should be out exploring your options and finding your own place in the world. 

Some staggering facts,  teenage pregnancy costs the United States 7 BILLION dollars per year!  Two out of three teenagers who have babies will not graduate high school.  A good portion of teenage parents will live with their children in poverty and this cycle will be repeated.

What a sad situation to glorify and reward with a TV show.

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