Just when you thought that the US networks had hit an all-time low with Bridalplasty, the reality TV show where future brides earn more time under the surgeon’s knife by stabbing their rivals in the back, along comes a programme that is so dangerous that it actually beggars belief.

World’s Worst Mom, another “reality” show, is an attack on what the producers believe to be over-protective parents.

Lenore Skenazy (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Genius’), the host, works with parents in order to help them overcome their fears and supposedly achieve freedom for the kids concerned.

The Genius became known as the “World’s Worst Mom” for letting her nine-year-old son ride the New York Subway all by himself.

To anyone who is yet to have a full frontal lobotomy she can be described in medical terms as a moron without a redeeming feature.

To the US networks she is a parenting expert.

The reason why today’s parents are overprotective of their children is because modern society demands that they be extremely vigilant.

On television, materialism, drugs, alcohol and a mentality of anything goes has left the boundaries of what constitutes morality so blurred as to be almost non-existent.

The internet, in its turn, offers anything from pornography to joining terrorist groups at the click of a button.

Worse, the parliaments of so-called free world countries are bending over backwards to protect the human rights of the worst offenders at the expense of criminal justice systems, clearly missing the point that if everyone has total freedom nobody has any freedom at all.

This has resulted in the police – who are terrified of violating the rights of criminals – and other authorities becoming less and less effective in the fight against crime and in protecting our children.

This means that children are daily being exposed to messages that put them in harm’s way while the authorities put in place to protect them are being undermined by the media, legislators and society.

The Genius fails to factor any of this in and does not seem to comprehend that society is not conducive to allowing nine-year-old children to ride solo on a train.

The fact that her child was not mugged, sexually attacked, sold into slavery or killed is not down to good parenting, it’s down to sheer luck. Madeleine McCann’s parents left her in a hotel room in Portugal and she was abducted within hours – how does that weigh up against the Genius’s theories?

How many nine-year-old boys and girls have been abducted, sexually assaulted, murdered or are simply missing in America?

Shitloads more than those who ride the New York subway unscathed.

Naturally the idiots who put on this show fail to make mention of the horrific statistics, electing rather to harp on the fact the Genius’s son managed to survive this act of parental madness.

No, to them, she is a parenting expert.

This might have been a wonderful concept circa 1950 but in today’s world it is a terrifying portrait of innocence at large.

Of course as soon as the ratings on this show take off, the other morons who run rival networks will be clamouring to do a bolder and more outrageous version of the same theme.

Instead of the Genius they will have an 18-year-old blonde bombshell with huge breasts called Storm Smokem – who once encountered a child when she visited a supermarket – as the leading authority on parenting.

“Hi I’m Storm Smokem and I’m speaking to you from Helmand Province in Afghanistan. As you can see I am allowing my five-year-old son to take a stroll through this park all by hisself…”

KABOOM. (IED totals five-year-old)

“Cut!”

“John can you get those guys to run a quick check over that pathway, that’s the 4th kid we’ve lost this week. Lisa see how many wannabe TV stars we have left in the trailer. Storm I know this is irritating honey but I’m going to have to ask you to go back to makeup…”

Of course when the programme airs there’ll be not a problem in sight and people will actually think that the best place for a five-year-old to have a picnic is in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Best way to solve that little problem is to get Storm and the production team – at gunpoint – to play a soccer match in that “safe” park.

Shouldn’t take too many corners before you can fit what’s left of Storm in a teacup.

Author

  • Mike Trapido is a criminal attorney and publicist having also worked as an editor and journalist. He was born in Johannesburg and attended HA Jack and Highlands North High Schools. He married Robyn in 1984 (Mrs Traps, aka "the government") and has three sons (who all look suspiciously like her ex-boss). He was a counsellor on the JCCI for a year around 1992. His passions include Derby County, Blue Bulls, Orlando Pirates, Proteas and Springboks. He takes Valium in order to cope with Bafana Bafana's results. Practice Michael Trapido Attorney (civil and criminal) 011 022 7332 Facebook

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Michael Trapido

Mike Trapido is a criminal attorney and publicist having also worked as an editor and journalist. He was born in Johannesburg and attended HA Jack and Highlands North High Schools. He married Robyn...

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