My daughter recently pulled me aside to show me some artwork that she had taped to the cellar door in the kitchen. There was an adorably misspelled chore chart and a spinning wheel filled with fun destinations like "Resteront" and "Out For Pitza". Apparently she had invented a game where her and her brother could earn points doing chores that could be redeemed by spinning a wheel of fortune aimed at the 9 year old heart.
As impressed by my little girls inspiration, I was shocked at how immediately my 11 year old son caught on to the game and actually yearned to participate. Only after a couple days and a few free snow shovelings and vacuumings did I realize that they had stole this wonderful idea from a low ratings reality show on ABC called "The Supernanny".
Now, the ReInvented Wife and I watch this show every once and a while to remind us that our kids aren't the worst demons on the planet but we didn't understand how much they were paying attention over our shoulders. Shows that feature compelling human interaction like "Survivor" or "America's Next Top Model" play like game shows were the objective is to use personality as much as intelligence as tools. After years of guarding them from these media influences I am becoming more and more tolerant of reality shows as long as I have checked them out thoroughly myself. I certainly don't need my children to be learning about hypocrisy and botox just yet so we'll leave "Real Housewives" off the watch list for now.
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