The End of an Era

It's official. I've removed Oprah from my DVR list of shows to record. I haven't really been watching lately because she hasn't had any good shows in months, but today I decided to give it a go and at 4pm I switched over to see what the show was about.

I was immediately disappointed, because although the topic was motherhood, it was from the perspective of the new show In The Motherhood, which I detest.

I got through about twenty minutes before I was so disgusted I not only turned it off, but I removed it from my DVR list. I'm done.

They played a clip of a woman saying she had gone three weeks without bathing her kids and another woman said she would leave her kids in bed crying while she and her her husband drank wine. The audience laughed and applauded. what's going on?

Did I miss a parenting memo? Is this some new form of humor that I just don't get? It's hip and cool to be neglectful?

One thing the women on the show kept repeating and agreeing with each other about was how "no one tells you how hard it is to be a parent" and "I didn't know what to expect when I became a mom." What? Is it not 2009? Are there not a million books, magazines, TV shows on the very issue of being a parent?

I'm really disturbed by this seemingly growing trend of too cool to be bothered parents. And the worst part is, they're encouraging each other. Instead of saying, "What the fuck! You didn't bath your baby for three weeks?" people are saying "You think that's bad, I don't even know where my baby is right now!" And then they share a laugh and a glass of wine.

And Oprah of all people is encouraging this. The co-messages she's attempting to give are that:

1. Being a mom is the hardest job on Earth and
2. That being said, it's understandable that you can occasionally lose your shit and stop being responsible for your kids well being

I mean, seriously, one woman said she forgot to feed her kids dinner. They were attempting to pass off these stories as cute little "mom anecdotes", but they came across as things you should be embarrassed about and not share in public. Or maybe you should be telling to your court-appointed therapist.