A Happy Medium

I was flipping through the channels the other day and for some reason stopped on the TLC show about the Duggar family-you know the one-48 Kids and Counting or something along those lines.  They captured my attention for a minute, the kids were all being normal little kids and running around and Mrs. Duggar was just sitting there like she was on some sort of mood altering drugs.  Nothing fazed the woman.  She had about 29 little boys running around and jumping on furniture and she barely noticed.  Clearly, I need some more patience (or a good prescription).

(and yes I picked this old picture because of the scary hair and girls' creepy dresses)

It was like a train wreck and I couldn't look away-then they cut to a commercial for another TLC show.  It was so different, I can't even believe the two can be on the same network.  You know the one....

I have to say, I have watched Toddlers and Tiaras-or Satan's Little Helpers, now and then.  Another train wreck, can't look away situation.

This little sequence of events got me to thinking about what a crazy job parenting really is.  And I think it all boils down to this....

Somehow we all need to find a happy medium, a meeting place, between these two shows.  Those poor Duggar kids are really living in a bubble-which is fine for them, but don't you think that at least 16 of them are going to go postal at some point?   Face tattoos, liquor store hold up kind of postal? 

And then the pageant kids-I don't even know where to begin.  Those little girls are shaking their money makers while still in diapers.  The actually talk about being sexy for the judges.  It is 100% disgusting to this mom.  (And it also makes me glad I have boys-even though they will grow up alongside of girls like these).

I worry a lot about what the boys are watching on tv-all the shows they really want to watch are shows involving a lot of fighting-and I think it really encourages Nate to be more physical than he needs to be.  I also think it sort of desensitizes kids to hurting others and even death.   Gil and I steer them to Phinneas and Ferb (a more grown up option than straight up Playhouse Disney) but they really love Ben 10-which is all about fighting bad guys.

I was going to slip in a few pictures of the boys, but I don't want them on the same page as the nuts up above!

  'Fess up-are you a Duggar or a Tiara???