I have to admit: there was a brief moment when I toyed with the idea of going on a reality TV show. Casting agents contacted me last year about a new reality TV show about extreme parenting methods. Well, that program is now on the air. Extreme Guide to Parenting premiered on Bravo TV this week, and let’s just say… whoa! we are not that extreme!
What’s considered extreme? First of all, you have to have a name for your style of parenting: conscious-attachment (Gwyneth, is that you?), helicopter, eco-kosher/shamanistic. This is how the press release describes the Adler family, featured in the first episode:
“Mom Shira believes in an all-natural approach to raising her children, especially her 10-year-old indigo son Yonah to help treat his overactive personality.”
That’s just for starters. One mother uses a furry puppet to ask a child, “What color is your vulva?” Then there are the two dads (the “Guncles” from Oxygen’s “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood”) who bicker about which designer their toddler daughter should wear. I don’t know how I would name my parenting style. Because I am Asian, a casting agent might think I could fit nicely into the role of Tiger Mom: flash cards, piano practice, lots of guilt … and never any fun.
Read the rest of the story and find out how I imagine producers might describe our family at Mom.me…