Dumb Reality Shows My Kids Watch…

First of all I am not going to sit here and type that I  do not watch dumb shows, because I do. Here are the shows that distract me from my reality: Mob Wives, Real Housewives of New York (I can only stomach one series of the franchise and my kids got me started), and of course my two ridiculous soap operas (Young and The Restless and Bold and the Beautiful). These are my guilty pleasures. Don’t worry, if I forgot any others my snarky kids will fill you in. But this blog is not about me and what I watch, it’s about what they watch…and I don’t even know the half of it.

First we have “Dance Moms,” about a seriously overweight dance instructor, Abby Lee Miller, who verbally abuses the girls in her 8 to 10 girl dance troop, and who is impossible to please even when they come in first place (they didn’t get enough points). Then add to the mix some outrageously, argumentative, petty, sarcastic, envious stage mothers who like to argue with Abby and verbally abuse their own children because winning is everything. Now, as you see there is redundancy in my description around the words “verbally abusive.” I want to know why CPS hasn’t been called on all the mothers and most especially Abby? I can’t even count the number of times these girls have cried a river over unnecessary comments and yes even insults which are damaging their self esteem. Is it me? Cause I don’t get it. Is this all about being on television? Does anyone freaking care how much emotional damage is being done to these sweet little girls and what lessons they are learning? Abby even punishes them if, for example, they want to take a senior trip with friends and miss a class or practice. She yells at them if they want to pursue other talents, like singing. Lately she has been threatening them all that they aren’t good enough and she is constantly looking for talent to replace them. These kids live in fear of being kicked out of her dance troop. The girls are subjected to their moms arguing with each other over who deserves to have a solo this week. They complain that one of the girls is Abby’s favorite and always gets special attention. Abby even has a pyramid where she unveils each of the girls’ faces, one at a time. Most of them are in the bottom row, which means their performances have been below par, or they are guilty of a petty infraction like their hair piece fell off during a competition. At the top of the pyramid is always Abby’s favorite, Matty. So poor Matty is set up to be the one the girls have to strive to beat and the Mom’s hate the favoritism so they are always talking about Matty and her mother. All I can do is shake my head. This is entertainment?

Then we have a new show, at least I think it’s new, called Couple’s Therapy. The couples are beyond helping for the most part, especially when you have a therapist that curses a blue streak and breaks down crying in front of her “clients.” I just can’t get into the show enough to complain about it decently enough. This is what I do know, Jon (from Jon and Kate Plus 8), who could not stand Kate’s verbal abusiveness anymore, goes out and find another “Kate” named Liz, to cohabitate with and wonders why they have issues. Duh! Then there is a rapper, Ghost Killer Face (whatever) who is on the show with a girl named Kelsey. He is very upset because she didn’t tell him she was a stripper years before they met. He gives her hell about keeping her past a secret. Then, guess what? Turns out he has been cheating on her the whole time they have been together with a woman he has been seeing before he even met her. Neither woman knows about the other. So he wants the other woman on the show so HE can decide who he really loves and wants to be with! Oy vey. There is a single girl, Farrah, on the show. She is not part of a couple so why is she even there? All she does is cry and then you can’t understand a freaking word she says. There is a lesbian couple, and one of them is really nuts/unstable and the other one has to keep trying to figure out how to make her happy. Then there is Taylor Armstrong, who I think was on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills a while back. She is there with her new husband, the previous one committed suicide (I wonder why). Her bloated lips may qualify her to be in the fish species. I hate them. Taylor is used to the good life and complains that her towels aren’t the right color and the food tastes like school cafeteria food. Enough said. Just a few temper tantrums for the “therapist” to work on. Done with this show.

My older daughter watches “Sister Wives” which even my younger daughter cannot stand. It’s about an obnoxious Mormon man, Cody, who is married to four wives. They consider themselves “sister wives.” They claim they aren’t jealous of each other, but there are times when it’s obvious they are. The wives and their respective children all have their own home on a cul-de-sac in Vegas. It took them forever to find 4 homes close together so the kids can play with each other and yet each wife has her own home…and of course Cody doesn’t have to waste much time traveling about since he has to divide his time fairly amongst all four women. I don’t know how many children he has altogether, but my younger daughter and I can’t stomach the lifestyle and I don’t think these women are happy. Mind you, he is all for plurality of marriage BUT finds it disgusting if a woman, or let’s say one of his wives, wanted more than one husband. There are so many things that annoy me about this show that I am going to blame it for part of my high blood pressure.

There are many more shows they watch. Some of them they save until I have gone to bed so they don’t have to hear me complain. I think that’s best too. The quality of television has hit rock bottom. I’m so glad I have a nice big flat screen tv to watch it all on.