$5 MILLION DOLLARS… THAT’S QUITE A ‘SITUATION’!
Good Enough Mother is having a bit of a disconnect.
You see while I want my kids to go to school, get a good education and a great job (so they can take care of me and their father in our old age) I sometimes wonder how to counter the messages they see on TV. You know – reality stars making millions of dollars for doing nothing except elevating bad behavior to an art form.
You see today it was revealed today that Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, star of Jersey Shore, is on target to make five million dollars this year. Not one million, not two and a half million, FIVE MILLION dollars.
That’ll certainly buy a lot of hair gel and quarters for the laundromat but what sort of message is reality TV sending to our children?
I think it’s time for a podcast…!
-
I consider myself lucky in that my kids are 22 and 26, so they sort of missed the impression of reality shows in their formative years.
but we they still in elementary or high school, i think i would work up the extremely low percentage of reality stars (or NBA basketball players, or American Idol hopefuls) that actually make it to the point where they are pulling down big bucks. So in lieu of flipping burgers, it’s best to pursue an education in whatever discipline ignites their passion – if they do, the money will come.. IMHO.
-
oh Lulu I FEEL your pain.. and I mean I really do. I have been out of work for several years now. I guess I would say to you just take it in little chunks. Example, I had a minor victory today for which I rejoiced. Was it like the kind of victories I had in the past? No but definitely a step in the right direction. So just hang in there and take it a day at a time. And yes, This Situation is ridiculous.
-
Being a Landscape Architect, I can’t but help equate childrearing with growing plants. They are both nurturing new life. And there are a set or rules you need to continually follow if you want to do it successfully. But there are different rules for different species, each which has it’s own place in the plant pantheon.
It was simply assumed that we kids would grow up, search for what excited us, go to college to learn whatever that was and work our butts off to succeed at it. And it seemed the normal thing to do because this is the constant example, the consistency of that example, that our parents set for us. It was made clear that entertainment is entertainment, and even that it pays well, but the chances of “making it” are slim. Still they sent us for music lessons if we wanted so we could dream about being rock stars, (I’ve even played in bands in NYC), football players, etc. But because of the consistency of the examples set forth for us, they trusted us to make the right decisions for our lives. And so all three of us have done so.
I’m sure the Situation’s parents are proud of him. He has essentially won the lottery. And I’m sure MTV made sure he has excellent representation. His success is concomitantly theirs.
But I do not sweat his success even though I sweat 60 or 70 hours a week for mine and to keep food on the tables of the families of my employees. After all, I am, in a way, my employees “parent” trying to set an example for them to succeed too. And I try to set the same consistency in my example that my parents set for me. …And it works.
So as Rene states, “The Imperfect Parent” simply has to keep doing what their doing, and do it on a regular basis with whatever moral compass they wish their kids to walk this earth with. Kids are sponges. They absorb whatever is going on around them. If they see excellence, they will strive for it because that is “the norm” they see in their daily life. -
I don’t have children, but I do have nieces and nephews who are old enough to watch this crap but thankfully they do not aspire to such foolishness. You’re right, God does take care of babies and fools, but I wonder who the fool really is in these, pardon the pun, situations.
There is nothing real about reality TV. While no one is employing people like me, writers, to come up with original scripts, producers are creating face conflicts to clash with the personalities that they know and cutting it up to make it interesting. This, my friends, is scripted.
The only thing I can tell anyone really, including people in my own age group who aspire to be on reality TV, there is no future in this mess. What happens when the cameras stop rolling? When your behavior becomes sad and pathetic? And what will become of you when you have made an ass of yourself to the point that no one will hire you? You got nowhere to go but down. That’s not pretty.
-
-
- Comment Feed for this Post
Speechless. Truly. I guess I’m doing something wrong. Went to college (Ivy League) worked hard; been out of work for 15 months; trying to make things work doing my thing & THIS fool makes $$ for doing nothing. What a shame. Shows what we value in society. Geesh.