Jessica Moe

There are two new television shows this summer that I have been very excited to watch. One of them is “The Baby Borrowers” on NBC.  If you haven’t heard of it (which I am sure you have), the premise of the show is this: Five couples between the ages of 18 and 20 years old (most are 18 years old) are given a house and a kid (and one of them gets a job!)…for three days, they get a baby between 6 and 11 months, then they fast forward and get a toddler for three days, then three days of preteens and their pets, then teens for three days…and then, the elderly…

The premiere was on Wednesday of this week and I have to say that it was truly great! Issa was so annoyed when I recorded it on the DVR and fussed supreme when I insisted that we watch it, but he really got into it in the first couple of minutes–becoming exasperated by the ‘tudy teens “moms” and laughing his head off when one of the babies blew chunks.

One of the aspects that I didn’t particularly like is the real parents of the babies could step in at any time.  You know, these people aren’t “professionals”, they are parents who are just as likely as anyone else to make mistakes in the way that they handle things.  To allow them to come over with their nasty over-protective momtudes was not helpful.  I would have preferred to see the parents communicate with the ever present professional nannies and have the nannies communicate with the teen parents.  The harshness of these women was just the tipping point some of these couples needed to force them to give up even trying.  However, I will say that it almost seems that the real moms were told to be harsh to add to the stress of the already difficult scenario….

Example: One girl was feeling quite frustrated with her baby who wouldn’t eat because he was teething and feeling fussy.  Now, there are *some* child specialists who will say, when you kid is hungry–he/she will eat.  The real mom wanted baby kept on a strict schedule and was really pretty harsh on the girl when the girl gave up and said “Fine, starve!”…Well, we know the baby wasn’t going to starve…he was sucking on a bottle when the mom walked in…nevertheless the mother insisted she keep trying to feed the baby and didn’t seem to offer her any guidance beyond “Just make him eat”. That’s aggravating, and what’s more…as a nanny/future mom I am not sure force-feeding my child when they are hysterical and in pain would be my approach….

Nevertheless! This is an overall excellent social experiment, and while I doubt that it will prevent a 15 year old from getting knocked up, I think it takes the romanticism out of the notion that those borderline teens/adults might have when they *think* they are in a stable loving relationship (some of them seem to have critical relationship problems–especially the couple from GA) and during the honeymoon period it seems romantic to pop out a mini….For any young people in this age range, people who are smart enough to watch, smart enough to actually decide to try to get pregnant…this could be a good deterrent.

In sum, if you haven’t seen it, I suggest you check it out…you might decide its not for you but I have a feeling you might really enjoy it.