NBC Airs Show About Teens Raising Other Babies

Last month, the National Broadcasting Corporation launched a new reality TV series called, "Baby Borrowers." The concept of the show, according to NBC producers, is to prove to teenagers that despite whatever they may think, they are not ready to have kids, and as a result, should not be engaging in sex in their teenage years. The concept for this show was taken from a British show that had the same concept. In this series, five teen couples are put in a house wired with cameras and given a strangers baby for three full days to experience firsthand the life of an adult raising children on their own. The parents of the young infants were not paid for allowing their children into the show, they volunteered. There was an interview on the television show Fox & Friends with one of the mothers that volunteered her one year old son to be used on that show.

I have several thoughts and concerns about the overall concept and creation of this series. First of all, I am all for the concept of proving to teenagers that they should not be having sex and that they are definitely not ready to have children at their young ages. That being said, I feel that NBC has seriously crossed the line in putting together this series, abusing young lives just to make a profit. Yes, that's right...keep in mind here that the whole reason why this show was made and aired on television was to sell advertising space on commercial segments to make millions of dollars in profits and stuff in it their pockets. Absolutely no mention anywhere on this program that the money generated from airing that show would be used in any way to help national organizations that try to educate and prevent teen pregnancy. This was all done to make a profit for NBC!

Now about the teenagers used in the show that had the experience of being parents. These kids are being told all along not to have sex and that it's too early to raise family, then NBC goes ahead and hands them a new born child and says, here bond with them, raise them, care for them. Yes, it is a lesson in how hard parenting is, but anything can be made doable when you know you only have to survive for a few days and you can give it back if things get out of hand! I feel sorry for the young girls in this show who physically just starting to get their bodies ready for motherhood and their hormones are all going nuts, and you start them bonding with a young baby who is also starting to learn to bond and then once the bonding starts you take them apart.

As for the babies who were the only ones that had absolutely no say in what was going on, this was terrifyingly sad to watch. How can you take a child that is still trying to figure out who their real mommy and daddy are and give them away to some complete stranger for a few days and expect them to return to you after three days and be perfectly normal again? These young babies will bond with those that bond to them, when these young girl's emotions and hormones kick in and they are carrying around and feeding these babies, the babies are going to start to see them as mommy. Then after a few days of them bonding to these teenagers they are going back home to their real parents and now told to learn to bond to them instead, how confusing for such a young mind and heart?

To the parents that volunteered to use their children for this show, I am ashamed of you. How could any parent meet a strange teenage couple for just an hour in a strange place and then just hand your child over to them just so they can be abused as a television experiment? I know what they were all probably thinking though, maybe by getting them on television, they my child could become the next Olsen twins!?! Sure, just keep in mind how they turned out afterwards the next time you answer an open call for infant television stars.

It upsets me (and I am sure many other people across the country) that this show was created and aired on television. I will not contribute to the abuse those young babies were put through and I will not let the producers profit from ruining these lives by watching that program. NBC should be ashamed!