I watched a new show on TLC last night called The Secret Life Of A Soccer Mom.? The premise is a SAHM swaps places with her husband for a few days, and she gets to work in the career she gave up prior to staying home.? At the end, they offer the job for real and she must decide whether to stay home or go back to work.
Let me state, for the record, that I fully, 100% support stay at home moms and working moms.? Both are difficult in their own ways and its a personal decision, yada yada.
My issue with the show is that the classic Mr Mom stereotype is shown for the dad.? You know, that dads don’t know how to take care of their kids.? And if they are left alone, the house will fall into disaster and chaos.
Puh-lease !#$#@%
At least in Jon and Kate Plus 8 (which I also watched last night), they get past the old stereotypes and show true reality TV.
I wrote about this show last week. My husband is clearly capable of taking care of the kids just as well or maybe even better than I can at times.
The show was pretty interesting but..I have to agree, the way kate yells at jon, that’s reality at it’s finest :)
These stereotypes really bother me too. I know that they reflect a certain percentage of reality, but it doesn’t help to inspire dads to get more involved when the stereotype is constantly reinforced by television and the media. I guess that they think that’s what makes for a good story/show, but to me it’s just like tabloid garbage. Having said that, dads need to take more responsibility for changing the stereotype, which is why you, me and many other have started blogs, resource sites, films and more. Maybe someday our stories will be more compelling than the stereotypes. Thanks for letting me rant with you!