Baby Borrowers: a possible solution for teenage pregnancy?
Teenage pregnancy is a hot-button issue that keeps bubbling to the surface every few years.
In 2003, a state of the family survey in Singapore brought teenage pregnancy to the limelight. The survey revealed that in 2002, 849 teenagers in Singapore were pregnant. That same year there was 1,626 teenage abortions. Now, a recent spate of headlines - teen star Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy, the film Juno, the 17 girls pregnancy pact at an US high school - has adults and the media all worked up again.
While it's all fine and dandy to throw out stats and talk about the issue, it seems like no one has an effective solution. Well, that's till reality TV decided to step in.
For the unaware, I am talking about The Baby Borrowers, a new US reality TV show that installs five teenage couples who think they're ready for marriage and children in a suburban cul-de-sac and hands them a succession of people to care for -- infants, toddlers, tweens, teens and finally, aged parental types. To ensure the safety of the kids, professional nannies and psychologists are kept on standby throughout and the real parents are housed a few blocks away with a 24 hour video monitor. The parents and experts are allowed to intervene at any point if they felt things get out of hand. To prepare themselves for parenthood, the ten teenagers were sent for antenatal classes prior to recieving the baby .
Interestingly enough, unlike other typical reality TV programmes, this show is not a competition -- there is no cash incentive and no one is voted off. The prize appears to be... wisdom. At the end of their 2 weeks-long experiment, the participants hope to grasp the enormous responsibility that giving birth and caring for a baby entails.
So what do you think? Could reality TV be the cure for teen pregnancy?
Roshni Mahtani
Founder and Editor
