Wednesday, February 14, 2018

They Were Born This Way to Inspire.

So, A&E’s reality show Born This Way highlights the lives of 20-something MR kids navigating live with the help of their folks while meeting up at Leaps n Boundz to learn life skills.  It’s really an awesome show, we’d recommend you checking it out.  The 4th season start date has yet to be announced.

Now, I’ve been around the block a few times, and know “reality” TV really isn’t that real.  As much as we want to believe, somethings are just too set up, right?  SOMETIMES, I wonder about that with Born This Way.  I hope it’s just my cynical side just coming out to play, but most of the stuff out there’s so blatantly obvious.  I hope the producers are just letting the kids…just be.  The family dynamics are absolutely fascinating, and the kids are extremely high-end while not hiding the kids’ mental cripnesses.  And their strengths, wow, just wow!  Shine on, Kids!

In the last season, they brought on a new fam with a little boy named Rocco, this perpetually happy tike that’s graduated from a Head Start for MR kids to start school.  It’s heartening to see the older kids’ parental units band behind these newbies giving advice good and bad, in my opinion.  And, again, I hope they aren’t going for ratings here with some parents showing shades of Housewives of Orange County, which, in my opinion is a waste of storytelling time unless it has to do with the kids, which most of it does, but...  I say, turn the camera on, and let the kids go.  Use the parents sparingly, and, of course, Leaps n Boundz will always be the gathering place with counselors coming in periodically.

When they just let the kids be, the show excels in tear-inducing inspiration.

 
When I worked the office, I saw both sides: the good, where the caregivers let the people talk for themselves, but I saw the bad, where caregivers bowled over the people.  For me, as a crip, it was hard not to break professionalism to tell the caregiver to shut up and let he/she talk.

Be good to each other.

-J-

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