The Baby Borrowers

Teen pregnancy has certainly become an issue in pop culture today.  The critically acclaimed film Juno tells the story of a teen mom who makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn baby.  Nickelodeon television Jamie Lynn Spears recently announced her pregnancy, at the tender age of 16.  Everyone has an opinion of teen parents and NBC is capitalizing on that hot button issue with a new reality show called The Baby Borrowers.  Five teenage couples from around the country, ages 18-20, will participate in a social experiment where they'll live the entire life of a parent in just three short weeks.  Through this journey, they'll figure out whether or not they are actually ready to have children.  Today, BuddyTV spoke to creator/executive producer Richard McKerrow and one of the adult mothers, Natalie Nichols, during a press conference call.  Read on to hear what they have to say about this controversial new series.

McKerrow was very careful when selecting the teens used for The Baby Borrowers.  "We definitely wanted different teen couples from around the country," he told BuddyTV.  "We wanted them to be in real relationships and the key thing about the series is that we wanted to take them on an educational journey. Teenagers think they know it all, they want their adult life now. The whole idea of the show is about saying. 'With that life comes responsibility'."

The preview video on NBC's website shows the teens going through the various stages of parenthood, from taking care of infants to toddlers to pre-teens and so on.  The children terrorize the young parents, bringing many of them to tears, but McKerrow promises that there are heartfelt moments, too.  "There are fantastic moments. It's surprising."

One of the mothers who let her kids be "borrowed" for the program was Natalie Nichols, a former teen mom herself who now has four children.  She admitted that some people thought she was crazy for handing her kids over to a teenage couple.  "A couple friends though I was strange or irresponsible for doing the reality show but I don't really care what people think," she told BuddyTV. "I thought it was an important thing to do. Everyone else be damned!"

The question still remains as to whether or not The Baby Borrowers will portray teen parents in a good light or bad.  Nichols is confident that the show sends a positive message and McKerrow echoes that sentiment, telling BuddyTV, "High teen pregnancy rates, whether it's in Britain or the U.S., is not a good thing.  Babies born to teen moms are not as emotionally healthy as other kids but you also can't stereotype it. There are lots of examples of teens who have become good moms. All the organizations that do research are very careful to say that we need to move away from a high teen pregnancy rate but not all teen moms are bad."

What do you think?  Will The Baby Borrowers change your opinion of teen parents?  Will you watch?  Give us your feedback and vote in our poll!


- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)