My Experience Auditioning for 'Wife Swap' and 'World's Strictest Parents'

While I never went out looking to be on a realty television show, I have been approached to be on both "Wife Swap" and "World's Strictest Parents" by the shows producers.

For some odd reason, my family seems to attract reality show producers. My guess is this is partly because I live in Ohio - and for some reason they love to film in Ohio. The second reason is that they do search engine searches for family farms and see that I have Miniature Horses, Shetland ponies and kids. In their minds this makes the perfect set up for "fish out of water" reality television.

The first reality show that approached me was Wife Swap. Initially I was totally ecstatic at the idea of being on the show, having an adventure and making some easy money. I enthusiastically went running to hubby to announce our good fortune. The look on his face was priceless and said "no way" in no uncertain terms. I figured I would just keep working on him.

Then I approached my kids. Two were all for it and one was appalled and said no way would he be on camera.

I kept bringing up the amount of pay (at that time it was $15,000) and trying to tempt my son and husband into saying yes. Meanwhile, the producer kept calling wanting an answer. She seemed to really like my personality and descriptions of my husband, children and farm.

Finally my husband and son agreed to sit down and watch the show in order to make their decision. We sat down and anxiously awaited the show to begin. After only 15 minutes, I knew I was in trouble just by seeing the look of utter horror on my sons and husbands faces. After 25 minutes, my husband shut the show off and declared the he and his family absolutely would not appear in the show. Much to my dismay, I had to reluctantly agree. It seemed to us that many of the confrontations seemed set-up, staged and forced.

The next day I called the shows producer and asked her point blank if situations were "scripted" or if this was truly reality television. She did admit that if there was not enough drama to film, that the show would insert "situations" to make viewing more entertaining.

Dejectedly, I told her we would have to decline their offer while the images of a fat bank account disappeared.

More recently, I was contacted via email from a producer for "World's Strictest Parents." My first thought after reading the email was "now this could be fun!." Ironically, my son and I had watched an episode just a few days before receiving the email, and had both commented this would be a fun reality show to be in. My son had visions of making someone else do his farm chores for a week while he sat in a lawn chair and supervised.

Much to my shock and disbelief, hubby also agreed that this could be a good reality show to appear on. Although he was still hesitant, he was open to thinking it over. Always a good sign!

Next the producer called me and did an interview over the phone which went very well and seemed to pique her interest in filming our family and farm even more. She then requested pictures of our family and farm.. She also explained that my location was perfect as I am only a few miles outside of Columbus Ohio. I then emailed the required pictures.

The next day I got another phone call that they loved the pictures and wanted to come to our farm and do a "test" filming and in person auditions. However, before she could do that, she wanted to email me a contract and have me read it over and sign a copy to email back to her. That is when it occurred to me that I had never asked what the pay was. I just assumed it would be pretty good pay based on the previous offer from Wife Swap. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The contract arrived in my email and after reading it, I sat and with a sad face and a little annoyed with myself for wasting so much time on this project without asking about the pay.

In a nutshell, the contract said that all members of the household had to agree to take one full week off of work to be available for filming. We also had to agree to feed and house the two troubled teenagers for one week. The total amount of pay? A measly 3,000.00. I was absolutely shocked and a little angry. While I work on the farm full-time, my son and husband both work outside the home. This amount of low pay would not even make up for 2 people's lost pay and the huge grocery bill I envisioned from feeding two extra mouths for a week.

I reluctantly picked up the phone and called the producer and informed her that we would have to decline their offer. I pointed out to her that this was extremely low pay for a family to put their life on hold for a week, take an unpaid leave from work and have the hassle of having your every move filmed for a week. Suddenly, the previously chipper and outgoing producer actually got a little mean and spiteful and practically hung up on me.

Although we would still think over any offers to be on a reality television show, I have learned from past mistakes to ask for the pay and terms up front, and always watch previous episodes to see if the show is a good fit.