The Baby Borrowers Bring It

I caught the premier of The Baby Borrowers last night and I really enjoyed it. It put my mind at ease to see how on top of things the baby’s parents are, and to see them step in and talk to the teenage Baby Borrowers, because frankly, some of those teenagers are really immature for their age. I was actually surprised by the way some of them carried on, like the attitude Alicea took when baby Carson’s mom came in to give some much-needed instruction. News flash, Alicea - it’s not your baby, you aren’t entitled to that attitude. I LOVE that she decides she needs to be the one to get a job because she can’t handle Carson’s mom’s “attitude.” Good lord that girl is in for the shock of her life. Because now she will still have to deal with Carson, and the next kid, and the kid after that, in addition to now being the primary breadwinner - with a minimum wage job. Have fun with that, Alicea.

Kelly is another story altogether. It’s like putting on the pregnant belly suit that she has to wear for all of one day somehow infuses her with a mega-dose of pregnancy hormones that turn her into a blubbering mess. Either that or she is cripplingly insecure. Jezebel has a great clip of the meltdown; perhaps someone else can make more sense of it than I can. Her poor boyfriend certainly can’t.

Some concerns have been raised over whether or not The Baby Borrowers will really reach the audience it can most benefit, namely teenagers and young adults, but I don’t know if I necessarily agree. True, the televised version is not as “slick” as many teens are used to, but I think the clips making it online will get decent viewing from that demographic.

There are also some bitterly negative assessments of The Baby Borrowers, but I think they are a bit overblown, as I have said before. I started babysitting officially at age 13, sometimes for 12 hour clips, and was doing shorter stints from age 12. The girls in The Baby Sitter’s Club books are 11-12 years old. This is not unheard of in the world, because maturity is not dependent on age. It’s based on experience and an evolving sense of personal responsibility. What I think The Baby Borrowers really reveals is that some members of the MySpace/YouTube generation have never been put into roles of increasing responsibility in their lives, and that is what they are so mis-informed when it comes to understanding the responsibilities of parenthood and adult life. The girls on The Baby Borrowers break down under the slightest stress of things like having to wear a pregnancy suit because they have never learned that responsibility means sometimes having to suck it up and do something you’d rather not do because it needs to be done. But hopefully that is one lesson they will learn by the end of this season.