If someone asks me what I "do" I say babysitter. I would love to be able to say improviser, or photographer of whatever activity I happen to feel like doing that day. For now though, my job, my main responsibility, is taking care of kids. I love my job, its fun, not a gruelling 9-5 office job. I still get to be creative, and influential, and create memories. And I get to go home at the end of my day. I basically get the best part of parenting. Sure, I'm missing out on the fact that eventually jobs end and children are forever, but its still pretty great. Now that I have presented my job, and that I enjoy it, and that its a large enough part of my life that I feel confident commenting on current issues involving today's children. I would like to bring up something weighing heavily on my mind: Kid Nation.
Kid Nation, for those of you who don't know is a television show on CBS where 40 children ranging in age from 8 to 15 attempt to create a functioning society on a set built in Santa Fe. Filmed during the summer; the children even go so far to create a government system with little to no adult supervision. The compete on teams participating in various physical tasks. These tasks determine weather they receive gifts such as more then one outhouse, or a television set. I watched part of this show tonight and my first thought is that these kids parents must be massive gambling addicts. And at this point that are gambling with their child's emotional and physical well being.
As I was watching these children trying to create a functioning society, something real adults are still trying to do; I would occasionally catch myself dissing certain kids in my head. "Oh really blue team kid with weird shorts, your hands are tired? well you just bought yourself double overtime cooking chicken nuggets" or when they cut to a certain 10 year old girl crying at night in her sleeping bag I first thought "Oh come on, you're fine, your mom will be there when you get out, just go to sleep and think about tomorrow when you get to compete in scorching heat again in order to win the chance to take a break for 5 minutes and actually enjoy being a kid" Then I remembered all the times I cried at camp and missed everyone and thing from my mom to the random stuffed animal I never thought twice about at home but suddenly deeply regretted not packing as an essential item for outdoor camping. When I was homesick I would cry and other girls would cry and we would all comfort each other and our counselor would tell us stories and makes us giggle and we got to ride this emotional roller coaster all in the comfort and safety of our dark tent. Not a sound stage with multiple recording devises showcasing my emotional snorting and slobbery confessions of sleeping with the lights on.
The parents of these children are gambling with their kids emotions because this could either be a great experience for their kids or a horrible one. I cant imagine if the entire world could see me as a goofy 7 year old at camp who says my name is "thisthy." CBS is quite aware that this could end up being a situation ripe for a scandalous law suit. So much so in fact that they had each parents or guardian of the precipitating kids sign a massive liability contract. The contract basically states that the parents/guardians cannot sue the network or its affiliates if their child dies, is injured, or contracts a sexually transmitted disease. A case jut waiting to be tried by a certain member of Manhattan Law. This says a lot about how the notion of "childhood" is slowly disappearing that it is a valid concern that a group of kids ages 8-15 might pass around an STD. This is more then just the cell phones, UGGs, miniskirts, and generally just smaller versions of adult clothing we see on most of today's youths at outings to their local shopping malls. Now I'm not saying that the camp I went to did have boys and girls sneaking out together and being in relationships and sharing first kisses, and maybe even more. However, I can say for a fact that my mother would NEVER have signed a contract stating that not only was she aware of this as a possible problem but she was so desperate for me to go to camp she would sign our rights away.
I'm so conflicted because on one hand I have this blog post which blasts this show. Which I do think is ridiculous, but at the same time its so ridiculous its hard for me not to say, watch this show.
No comments:
Post a Comment