NBC's Baby Borrowers: Have They Gone Too Far?

Midseason this year NBC will premiere their new Reality TV show called Baby Borrowers. The show is a social experiment, which will test the parenting skills of teenage couples. They'll be able to experience parenthood starting with an infant and ending with a senior citizen.

This seems like a spin on those Maury shows called "My teenager wants to have a baby!" The difference is Maury rarely asks parents to donate their infant child to be parented by a teenager all by him or herself. The question becomes, who in their right mind, would allow a stranger, especially a teenage stranger, to care for their child for three days?

What draws parents in to these kinds of shows? Is there cash offer to borrow the child or perhaps it's the fifteen minutes of fame that draws them in. Perhaps they think that this show will be the stepping-stone for their child to bigger and better things? Overall it seems highly irresponsible and down right abusive to allow your child to be used for this show.

You may think abusive is extreme but we have to look at the development of infants and the effects the environment they are in has on them. Infants are very sensitive to emotions and actions. I imagine that this show will have a lot of emotion, mainly negative. How will this affect the child? Will the child be stressed out; worried, or sad during the period he is with the teenagers? Will the child be able to feel the comfort and safety they rely on from their parents from these teenagers? Will the teenagers be able to provide the correct love and support to keep the child from being overwhelmed?

I highly doubt these teenagers will be able to provide the proper emotional support to an infant and although it's a relatively short amount of time that the infant will be spending with the teenagers, simple changes in schedules and surroundings are enough to cause stress and worry to any child. Will there be adverse effects to the infant later on in life? Probably not, but that's not the point. We should be thinking about how the child is feeling now. Why put your child through stress that is unnecessary? These children do not deserve to be ripped out of their homes to be placed with people they don't know who will not provide the proper emotional support that an infant needs.

It's time for people to call for a stop to this madness. With shows such as "Kid Nation" and now this, reality TV is going too far. It's us to us as viewers to show them we won't stand for these shows, by not watching. Harming children for ratings is down right wrong and it's time it stopped!