Do we need some sort of special-needs version of The Baby Borrowers?
By Terri Mauro,


That NBC "reality" show (based on one from the BBC) apparently gives teens a taste of parenting to discourage them from getting pregnant before they're fit for the job. I'm more worried about the fitness of the parents who are loaning their kids out, but I guess you take free babysitting services where you can get them.

The concept, though, makes me think of all those folks who've recently criticized the way parents of children with special needs take care of their young-uns, kicking them out of restaurants, planes and churches and ripping them on the radio for exerting insufficient behavioral control.

Perhaps some of these skeptics would benefit from spending some actual time in charge a child with special needs. Maybe they'd see that it's not really as easy as applying boot to backside. Maybe they'd develop some compassion for our children, and for those of us who devote our lives to them.

Actually, you probably have better odds of getting teenagers to stop having sex than for that to happen. But one can hope.

You'd have to make sure that the daily schedule was set up for maximum disruptiveness. A church service, followed by lunch at a place with slow waitresses, some travel with lots of suitcases and no help, then a long wait at a doctor's office. It can be like an obstacle course. It would make Survivor look like a day at the beach.

No need to restrict it to developmental disabilities, either. There are people who don't believe that things like ADHD or food allergies or Bipolar disorder exist. Perhaps some direct experience with hyperactivity or anaphylactic shock or cycling would be informative, for them and for the television audience.

There are problems with the idea, though. We all know how perverse our kids can be, behaving perfectly just when we most wanted to show somebody how they misbehave. Disrupted routine, inexperienced handlers, and all the lights camera action! should be enough to precipitate problems, but just our luck they'd save up all the bad stuff 'til they were back home.

Then, too, if we're looking for compassion and acceptance, showing our children at their absolute parent-bewildering worst isn't going to help much, either -- just make folks afraid to include them and angry about supporting them and determined to find genetic tricks to make sure they're never born. You can't make much of a case for proper handling and accommodations when you have reality-TV-volunteer bozos doing the handling and accommodating.

And that's the thing that dooms the idea the most, of course -- who among us would dare entrust our children to the inexperienced and the prejudiced? As much as that's a questionable idea for a newborn, it could be a disaster for a child with special needs. If you rarely go out because you can't trust anyone to babysit, you know what I mean.

Maybe there are folks who are desperate enough for respite that they'd consider it, though. And surely there should be no shortage of know-it-alls who are sure they could do better. Why, the producers probably wouldn't have to go far beyond our own extended families to find willing volunteers.

If not, that Michael Savage seems like the kinda guy who'd do anything for publicity.