'Baby Borrowers' borrows student

Kelly Young: a junior in public relations, and her boyfriend Austin Trizzino are on the new reality show “Baby Borrowers.” CONTRIBUTED

Kelly Young, a junior majoring in public relations from Dunwoody, Ga., has taken part in the newest reality show on NBC, “The Baby Borrowers.”

“The Baby Borrowers,” — derived from the British TV show of the same name — is described by NBC as a social experiment in which five couples, ages18-20, are put on the “fast-track to adulthood” by living in their own house and taking on adult responsibilities.

Each couple was given a baby for several days, then a toddler, pre-teens, teenagers and to top it all off, senior citizens. The show gave the couples an opportunity to look into the future and see what life would be like if they decide to have children.

Young decided to apply for the show after she saw an advertisement on the NBC Web site.

After a month-long screening process, Young and her boyfriend, Austin Trizzino, were selected.

Going into the show, Young did feel a bit apprehensive.

“I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect,” Young said. “We were cut off from the world, no connection, no books, no magazines, no Internet, no cell phones, no TV. So that was a little scary, and I obviously have never done a reality TV show before, so I didn’t know if the microphones would be on all the time, if they would be watching all the time.”

The show was filmed over a three-week span in Boise, Idaho, where Young and the participants were filmed 24/7.

Young said even though it was a TV show, everything that happened was a real-life experience. She had some experience in baby-sitting, but nothing to this extent.

“It was an accurate portrayal of how kids act and how you’re supposed to parent. Don’t be too strict, don’t be too mean,” Young said. “All of it was real life. The kids were real, they acted real, they cried, they screamed. It was definitely accurate.”

She said the easiest group to care for was the babies, while the most difficulty came from the teens.

“Pre-teens and teenagers have their own minds, and they can react and argue and put their foot down and say no, I’m not going to do that,” Young said. “I’m 20 years old, and the teens were only four years younger than me. I’m not their parent, so they’re not going to really listen to me. It was too close of an age. There was not a big enough gap to feel like I was parenting the teenagers.”

As anyone would expect, the show did take a toll on Young, both mentally and emotionally. The show challenged Young’s relationship with her boyfriend, and at one point during filming, she wanted to leave.

“I just kept telling myself that it’s only three weeks, not that long, and it’s going to end, and I’m going to learn a lot; and if I quit, I’m going to miss out on a good opportunity,” Young said.

The most important lesson she learned from the show was how to take care of other people.

Parents of the children taught her different ways to handle kids in many situations from entertaining to disciplining.

But do not look for Young to have kids anytime soon. She wants to live her life as much as possible before settling down with a family.

“I think you need to go out and enjoy your 20s and travel the world and live on your own and find who you are before you decide to have kids,” she said. “I can’t put a time scale on it, but when you’re ready, you’re ready, and you’ll know.”

Young described her entire experience on the show as a “roller coaster” of emotional and mental highs and lows.

It was an experience she is honored to have taken and is something she will most certainly never forget.

“Overall, I’ve learned not to have kids for a really long time,” Young said. “I want to enjoy myself; life is too short. It’s a lot of responsibility; a lot more than I could have ever imagined. I learned I am not ready to have kids or be married any time soon. You need to have a stable relationship before you can even speak about being married and having kids. Because when you do, it’s all about the kids. The relationship is on the back burner. So until you get that situated, it probably won’t work, or it’ll be really hard.”

These days, teen pregnancy has become a hot-button issue.

Shows like “The Baby Boomers” demonstrate how life actually would be if teens had children, but in a society where celebrities are paid millions of dollars for photos of their newborns, America’s obsession with pregnancy has extended to the “teenage mom success story.”

No doubt there has been a surge on the topic in pop culture, the best example being Jamie Lynn Spears’ recent birth to her daughter, Maddie. The new mom appeared on the cover of OK! magazine decked out in full hair and make-up, looking serene and motherly.

The 2007 film, “Juno,” about a 17-year-old soon-to-be mother, puts a comedic spin on the experience of an unplanned pregnancy. In the light-hearted comedy, Juno opts to give her baby to a couple who cannot have kids themselves.

“The media does influence common views on teenage pregnancy,” said Daniel James, junior in mathematics. “But in this case, the media is bringing the issue to the attention of more Americans, and when that happens to a hot topic like teen pregnancy, they may slowly become less and less taboo. Options for teenage pregnancy are probably made a bit more apparent, too, by increased media coverage. Of course, the media portrays teenage pregnancy differently in ‘Juno’ and Spears, but either way, more people are being exposed to the concept, which can equate an increase in tolerance.”

What the movie failed to show was teen mothers are more likely not to finish high school, and more than 80 percent of them end up on welfare.

However, some believe the media cannot be held solely responsible and that a big part of responsibility lies at home with the adults.

“A lot of the responsibility falls on the parents to educate their kids about waiting until marriage or having safe sex, so they are not influenced by what goes on in pop culture,” says Carly Hall, a sophomore in pre-physical therapy. “Education and communication between parents and children is vital in regards to sexual behavior.”

Whether schools should teach abstinence or safe-sex education has been a hot topic for a while. Yes, indoctrinating the belief that abstinence is the only way to go may work on some, but is it really that effective?

Chayla Handley, a sophomore in biomedical sciences, believes safe-sex education would serve a greater purpose.

“Schools should teach safe-sex education rather than abstinence, because the targeted age group is teenagers,” Handley said. “They are going to rebel and do what they want. They are human; they are going to be curious. Therefore, I think it would be wiser if they were educated enough to know what to do when they do act on that curiosity. If this were taught instead of just “don’t do it,” then we could be on our way to fixing the problem.”

The show airs Wednesdays 8 p.m. CST on NBC.

---

• Add new comment