Logo

Protest Hits ‘Baby Borrowers’

Jun 30, 2008  •  Post A Comment

A Washington, D.C., group called Zero to Three is protesting NBC’s new show “Baby Borrowers,” saying it is concerned about infants being separated from their parents and being placed with strangers, the New York Post says. “A large body of research says the attachments that are formed between [babies and] the people who care for them is very important,” the group’s spokesman said. NBC says the show’s producers took “all the necessary precautions.”

5 Comments

  1. While I like the concept of exposing to late teens and early twenties potential “parents” what day and night life is like for a parent, what is being done to the babies on this broadcast is abominable.
    I don’t care if the parents are a two minute walk away with 24 hour video observation of their babies, this is just wrong.
    The network, the producers and the parents should be hauled in by Child Protective Services in whatever jurisdictional district the show is/was recorded.
    If the sponsors were smart they would cancel immediately, and so should the network.
    I am a father of three and a producer-director-excutive and there is no way I would have ever suggested this idea as responsible for children who are too young to talk and express their feelings.
    Peter Bright

  2. The call for Child Protective Services may be overkill but the sentiment is understandable.
    Adults who volunteer to exploit their own selves in the “reality television” genre can do so with eyes wide open. Children plainly don’t have that same capacity for judgment.
    In fairness, the damage (if any) done to these babies was probably no worse than that done by a typical daycare. The ethics of this project still seem questionable though.

  3. At such a young age, infants and toddlers need their primary caregivers for reasons that are both obvious and not so obvious to us as adult humans. At the very least, we do know that these young individuals grow up much healthier with their the primary caregivers, because to these babies they are predictable and their source of security. Really, there are so many things we do not know about our babies. How can we assume that it is OK to take them away from their caregivers in the manner shown on the show and/or subject them to the care of an at risk young adult who has been educated by the popular TV media to be obsessed with themselves.
    There is no justification for this show, especially after you consider the message it sends to the people who unfortunately would not know better than to “Try this at home” and justify their behavior (in a similar manner as the producers of the show did)with a poorly informed decision that they also “took all the necessary precautions”. Surely if those young children had a choice they would not sign the contract that their caregivers signed to have them on the show.
    We must find a way to teach people to take responsibility for their actions that does not put our yongest members of society in a difficult position as this show does. Maybe most of the infants will be OK but it is not worth it if even one is affected negatively as a result of this show.
    Can we please try harder to be more loving and compasionate toward our babies?

  4. This show is just another attack by our society on its youngest citizens. I do have to express my disagreement with the statement above from Everett. Any high quality early care and education program would have a transition process. During this a child and his/her parents or guardians are encouraged to spend time together in the program and become accustomed to the program prior to leaving their child in the care of the program. An early childhood program would have teachers with degrees in early childhood education. This is drastically different from what this show proposes where children are bluntly put into the care of unqualified strangers.
    That being said, this show is an abomination! Anyone who cares about young children would realize the destruction that is possible from this experience.

  5. Wow, amazing blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy.

Your Comment

Email (will not be published)