NBC’s new reality show “Baby Borrowers” aims to teach teenage couples from 18 to 20 about everything that goes into parenting.
The couples “borrow” children from their real parents, some of whom were teen parents themselves, to experience parenthood firsthand.
Different age groups of children, including infants, toddlers and preteens, rotate every three days, and the teens must learn how to cope with children at different stages of development.
The teens also take care of a senior citizen to simulate caring for in-laws later in life.
During each three-day period, the couples have a family pet, in addition to the child or senior citizen.
One member of the couple must hold down a provided job, ranging from working in a veterinarian’s office to working in a lumber yard, while the other cares for the child or senior citizen.
Our editorial board determined three days per age group is long enough to make teen couples see parenthood from a different perspective, but the structure of the show is not realistic.
Three days is not long enough to bond with a child or senior citizen, and making it through three days is nothing compared to making a marriage and family work for life.
Teen couples aren’t usually financially stable enough to raise a family, and one season of a reality show can hardly get them ready for the financial hardships of having a family.
The show will surely prepare the participating couples for parenthood or make them decide to stay away from parenthood entirely, but the show will probably not affect viewers, especially the younger ones.
The show will not likely reach audiences of 18 to 20-year-olds, which it seems to be trying to target.
We think NBC probably had good intentions to teach teens responsibility and parental planning in filming this show, but we think they must have somehow lost their point along the way.
We applaud NBC for attempting to increase teens’ awareness of what having a family entails, but we don’t see how this show will make much of an impression on today’s teenage couples.
