"œKid Nation"�, a question or two?

[mr-pirk]

I have never been blessed with having children. As such, that leaves me asking what other folks would do.
My gut feeling say"™s that this might not be a good thing for a child that didn"™t have a dominating personality.
If my child didn"™t have a very strong make-up, I don"™t believe I would let him/her go on the show.

What are your feelings?

A little back ground for those not familiar with the show:

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/elfman/487340,SHO-Sunday-elf29.article
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The scene opens on a distraught young boy. You see tears leaking behind his eyeglasses.
"I'm feeling, like, really stressed and really worried. It's just been really stressful and tough. I guess I'm just gonna have to keep pushin'," he says, and he sniffs up runny snot.
In another scene, a different little boy weeps. "What I'm really missing is my brother. Because he is in a wheelchair. And um ..."
He can't continue talking because he's overcome with crying and sadness.
The trailer is the most disturbing thing I've ever seen in relation to a prime-time show. The first two times I watched it, my stomach turned. Literally. I thought I was going to vomit. Not metaphorically. And I don't even have kids.
In "Kid Nation," parents of 40 children ages 8 to 15 let producers take their children out of school in March and April to be bused to a privately owned ghost town-turned-movie set called Bonanza City, N.M. For 40 days, the kids ran the town. They cooked, cleaned toilets and operated a root beer saloon.
"No parents, no teachers anywhere," the narrator says in the trailer.
Hundreds of other adults were behind the scenes. In addition to camera operators, there were pediatricians and child psychologists.
What CBS is delivering here is yet another reality show where the images flashed before us are those capturing the worst in people. But this time, it's children. One girl stands in front of the kid-run town council and verbally attacks another kid.
"Even when you didn't have a job, YOU DIDN'T WORK," she says.

http://www.parentdish.com/2007/07/20/kid-nation-outrages-critics/

Geoffrey White, a psychologist who has worked on other reality shows, says that the premise of the show itself "sounds terrible" and that even adults put in situations such as this would suffer serious emotional stress. "These shows are coercive and use the manipulative power of group pressure to bring out the worst in people," he said. He also claims that the parents of these kids were asked to sign a consent form that didn't detail how each day on the set would be spent.


This brings me to my question:
Would you want your child to be on a show like this?

Thanks
Mr-Pirk

[hillbillyhunter1]

I'm about to have my firstchild any day (wife is as big as a hot air balloon right now). I have seen this show advertised but have never watched it, but may take a quick glance some time (if I absolutely can't find anything else to do).

Normally I can't stand "reality shows" at all (I do admit a weakness for "survivor" on occasion). So, not only would I absolutely not let my child appear on something like this, I'm hoping that my child will be emotionally stable and grounded enough that he would not even want to watch something like this. He'll be too busy splitting and stacking wood anyway

[kevin1]

No, why mar the kid with such silliness?

[Lanse couche couche]

I would rather be handcuffed to a cement block and be forced to watch re-runs of the The View for the rest of eternity than watch a single "reality" show, especially one involving children. Three quarters of those kids will end up hooked on crack, booze, or heroin.

[BenGarrett]

ORIGINAL: Lanse couche couche

I would rather be handcuffed to a cement block and be forced to watch re-runs of the The View for the rest of eternity than watch a single "reality" show, especially one involving children. Three quarters of those kids will end up hooked on crack, booze, or heroin.

I share your disdain for most of reality TV, but really, think about what you're saying. Forced to watch re-runs of The View forever? Does that include the O'Donnell episodes? Yuck.

[vc1111]

Reallity shows are inherently interesting in the same way the aftermath of a train wreck is interesting.

The only reality show I'm interested in is UFC, and even then I'm only interested in those time between when the round begins and when it ends. That is reality at its finest. The rest is show business.

[Lanse couche couche]

Uh, i meant the espisodes without O'Donnell.