I realize that an obnoxious trait in the new parent is to suddenly feel like you are an expert in children based on your newfound experience with a single child. I really do understand how annoying and misguided that is.
But I’m thinking that perhaps you don’t have to know very much about kids to realize a Very Bad Idea when you see one. Especially not when the Very Bad Idea is a new TV show described in my local paper as follows:
“A new reality show, ‘Kid Nation’, will take 40 children and set them up in an abandoned New Mexico town. Cameras will follow them as they try to set up their own society without adult supervision.”
Oh my God! Are you kidding me? Have none of the executives behind this show read Lord of the Flies? I’ll tell you what will happen. Piggy will lose his glasses, that’s what will happen. The only question is whether said glasses-losing will be the beginning of a ratings spike or a dive. I shudder to think…
It is exactly the prospect of programming like this that made me fight to not have TV in the house, a battle I lost this Tuesday when the cable crew showed up to hook us up after a two-year hiatus. I’m putting it on the table right now: The first day I watch this monstrosity will the last day we have cable if I have to cut the cord myself.