On television

So I was on "Wife Swap" last night. Let me tell you what happened. The shows' producers called my job OICW a couple of months ago. They explained that they had a family who needed some college counseling for their son. My boss asked me if I would do it, I reluctantly said "yes". I have no problem being on television. I like being on TV, I just didn't know how I felt about being on a show as dumb as "Wife Swap" I think the whole idea of trading your wife is sexist and ridiculous. Funnier even, because mostly women watch it. In any case they came and the crew was great. My boss, Alan sat in his office and gave our Executive Director a blow by blow account via email. The lady who was "swapped" Angel, was hell on wheels. She was a conservative black lady from Texas. The family she got swapped into was a working class white family from Boulder Creek, Ca. Not a good mesh. I mean, I am sure it made for good TV, but on a human level, it was disastrous. The kid JP, was a great kid. He makes good grades and he had a strong personality. The mom Angel, tried to make the kid feel like he was some kind of loser. I really didn't like that. My only role, I thought was to support the kid and let him know that his interests were valid and that he could have a future doing what he liked.

Here are some links about the episode:

http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/january06/article010306.html
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/January/08/style/stories/01style.htm
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=3796522
http://www.brenhambanner.com/articles/2005/12/24/news/news01.txt

Whatever. I think society would be better if we made more conscious decisions to invest in our youth, if we put the priority on our children, their health and well being, their futures, instead of our own selfish desires as adults. Who am I to talk? I went to Brazil last year and didn't even buy my kids Christmas presents. I am as guilty of having fucked up priorities as any policy maker.
Over and out