Egads - interesting Wife Swap tonight.

[Rabrrrrrr]

Happened across it by accident because of the show that on before. Wouldn't watch it normally, but the dichotomy of the two families has me piqued, and I can't turn it off.

The swap is between a family that has a daredevil motorcycle show with two teen boys who do the danger stuff, and a mom who loves it and even stands in a giant steel globe while the kids drive motorcycles inside around her. They live in hotel rooms 11 months out of the year, and they're all adrenaline junkies.

The other family is a eco-friendly vegetarian creative family that is quiet, homeschools to teach the kids creativity. The husband does something with music (I missed it), and the mother is a painter who begins her day with journaling. She converted a bedroom to her studio, so the three kids - two girls and one boy, in ages from maybe 11 to 7 - share one bedroom.


At first, after just the teaser, I was thinking the artist family would be pretty cool and the adrenaline junkie a bunch of weirdos.

The father of the junkie family seems to be a bit of a racist redneck rightwing asshole, but the mom is very cool and the sons seem okay.

The "artist" woman, though - the first time she talked, she talked about art and within about 6 words I thought "OMG! I bet all her art is shit!" And then they showed her paintings - and they're all shit. The dad and kids seem quite cool, though the dad is a bit of a clueless nerd. The mom, though, is totally uptight - self-righteous, one of those women that I know too many of who think they're organic womynyst creativist sensitive-to-mother-earth artists, but who just suck and are annoying as all fucking hell to be around because of their lack of artistic insight or understanding, and smug, cloaked self-righteousness and sense of superiority while they are, in fact, laughingly inadequate.



While it would be nice if the daredevil family had a bit more intellectual substance, they seem actually quite okay.

I fear for the kids of the eco-friendly family.

[Shakespeare]

1. eewww....an ecofeminist!

And I express that distaste as someone who is both a treehugger and a feminist. The combination, however...not so good.

[LostinVA]

7. Ten minutes into the episode, Haruka says to me

"You know she probably rails about razors and tampons being bad for the environment."

[Shakespeare]

11. ha!

They can have my Venus and my tampons when they pry them from my cold, dead hands!! :7

[LostinVA]

13. I find the Mach 3 to give a smoother shave than the Venus

[Shakespeare]

14. Is it cheaper, too?

'Cause those venus blade cartridges are just obscenely expensive! I'll have to check that out...


:hi: :loveya:

Looks like I may be moving in a few months, btw. :7

[LostinVA]

17. Maybe cheaper or about the same

We buy the cartridges at Costco in 16 packs. Seriously, the Costco membership is easily paid for just in what can be saved on razor blades, tampons, and rawhide chews for the dog.

:loveya:

Let me just say, I am NOT surprised.

:toast:

[Ellen Forradalom]

2. Oooog, I had one of those as a weaving teacher back in the day

:puke:

[Wetzelbill]

8. the mere fact that you knew one and of all things she was your weaving teacher

that's fucking hilarious! :rofl:

[Ellen Forradalom]

19. It was pretty unbearable

x(

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. The self-righteous narrow-minded daredevil dad and self-righteous narrow-minded eco-mom explode!

They totally don't get along, because they're both so fucking narrow-minded.

The daredevil mom and eco dad are doing kinda well, but he isn't quite seeing the point that they're stifling their children and that ecomom is a selfish, prudish bitch.

Of all the adults, daredevil mom is the real winner here! She's starting to go to bat for the eco children about needing bedrooms and more fun and that maybe the family should spend some fucking money on the kids instead of only on eco moms art addiction.

I could totally hang out with her for a night of bar hopping and hilarity.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. At first I thought....

I thought art mom was really a good artist....all that studio, all those supplies, all those paintings.

But then I saw the art critic saying her work was amateurish, not pro quality. And I saw what he was talking about, in the lack of different colors in trying to portray a realistic large flower, for example.

So that turned me around as far as thinking her work was good. So all that sacrifice the kids were making wasn't supporting them financially. And they weren't supported emotionally anyway. I found it interesting that one of art mom's daughters said she wanted to paint, and NOBODY NOTICED????

Musicdad was clueless that his kids hated their music lessons. I took music lessons for years, and LOVED it and LOVED practicing. I had enough talent to make it enjoyable. But that's different.

There's always one family that is too sedentary, couch potatoes, that need to get out and exercise in some way, and the other family is too physical, too active all the time and they never stop and do mental things.

The parents push their kids to do activities that the kids are miserable doing, and the parents refuse to notice. The motorcycle boys were quite unhappy too.

Thanks, Rabrrrr, for that description concluding with "laughingly inadequate". That gives me more insight to the type of woman you're talking about. There sure are a lot of rigid, macho men on that show who are scared of their gonads falling off if they do housework. The biggest jerk I've seen was the one that dropped the dishes on the floor and broke them, while they were between the sink and the dishwasher. :wtf:

Also, I wonder why so many women are compulsive housecleaners and are waiting futilely for appreciation from kids and hubby. Seems to be common on that show.


The moral of "Wife Swap" is: Moderation in all things.

"Supernanny" was also particularly interesting this time. First Black family I had seen on that show.

[AirmensMom]

10. "There sure are a lot of rigid, macho men on that show who are scared of their gonads falling off "

My thoughts exactly. I missed last night's show, but have watched it several times. Have you noticed that the men act like they got dragged into the thing kicking and screaming? When it comes to changing the rules, they act like it's a huge surprise and "that's not going to happen in MY house!" I sometimes wonder if they go out of their way to find asshole men for the show. I've also noticed the compulsive housecleaners ... swapping with total slobs, of course. :eyes:

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. I find it telling that ecomom said "wow" to Mina's room than asked if her studio was still intact.

Of course, we don't know how the editors messed with it, but it seemed a natural flow - she comes into the house, greets the family, looks at the new room, comments positively with a couple words and then, instead of asking the girl how she likes it or anything, ecomom immediately asks "Is my studio still intact?"

Way to think about yourself first, lady. :eyes:

But at least it seems as though they've learned some things, and are willing to spend some money on the kids now. I was really sad to see the violins smashed, though.

And the daredevil family seems to have learned that the kids maybe weren't 100% committed to doing motorcycles 100% of the time. I like that one of them said, "I'd like to have holidays at home."

I was also very touched by daredevil dad's admission of the hearts and the "love you always" thing that he and his wife signed their notes with when they were dating and ever since. Probably not too many people he ever told about that.

[Elidor]

15. They smashed violins?

Fucking postmodernist scum.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. I hope those were awfully cheap fiddles.

As a violinist, it pains me to think of somebody destroying a good fiddle.

They could have sold them. Your basic cheap mass produced student fiddle goes for about $350 these days, I think.

[boilerbabe]

5. Some of the most "closed minded" people I have ever known

Were the ones that pretended to be "wholistic". yah, from what I could see at the time, it just gave them some cosmic excuse for the rest of us to figure out how to pay rent, etc. Been there, and seen that one. Pretentions come in various guises!

[Midlodemocrat]

6. I thought both moms sucked.

Both of them put themselves first. You can't do that and have together kids. Evrey mom needs some 'me time', but those two, all they had was 'me time'.

[Wetzelbill]

9. I quit watching that show after this Black Republican woman

made a Lesbian family put up a George W. Bush sign in their front yard. I about kicked in my tv. I just don't have the temperment for that stuff. :)

[DS1]

18. Yeah. Uh huh. Happened to run across it.

Whatever, poseur.

I'll bet you had a good cry when you realized that the ego-driven veggie nutcase wife was your genetic mother.

[murielm99]

20. I saw that.

Eco-mom is selfish! I can't imagine being in a family and being that selfish. Everyone should have some way to express themselves and some space of their own. Everything in that home was hers. She is lucky that her kids were not total brats who acted out. I have seen kids like that in families where one or both parents are too self-absorbed.

The daredevil dad was an ass. But he did come around toward the end, and he was willing to compromise with everyone. It was clear that he loved his wife and kids.

I'm not sure why I watch that show, either. It is a guilty pleasure, I guess.