There are certain reality shows that are perfectly safe to discuss with your mom. You know, the American Idols or Biggest Losers of the world — series that are rife with feel-good inspiration and that rarely break the PG boundaries. Then there are shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which, at their core, are truly disgusting endeavors that magnify man and womankind's worst qualities. Because my mom is a loving, supportive parent, she faithfully watches The Bachelorette so she knows what the hell I'm ranting about in my weekly recap. Unfortunately, this motherly devotion also meant that my mom saw the tease for next week's episode, in which one bachelor apparently has some trouble in the bedroom. Below, her reaction:
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:34:08 -0400
To: Kristen Baldwin
Subject: ????????????
I finished watching Bachelorette last night. I just don't get why she likes Wes – a total mystery to me. I read that there are rumors that Ed will be back – have you heard anything about that? He seems like a really nice guy.
What really bothered me is does she actually spend the night (and have sex or try to) with some of these guys and have it on national TV????!!!!?? And the other guys, not to mention the whole world, know about it? What do you think about that? I'm sure her parents are appalled.
Love, Mom
In other words, my mom just figured out that the Bachelor/Bachelorette's patented "Fantasy Suite" date is really just a sexual test drive of several potential future mates. I feel a variety of emotions: guilt, amusement, sadness. It would help me to know that I'm not alone in having destroyed my mom's reality TV innocence — so tell me, PopWatchers, what was it like when your parents figured out what was really happening on their (or your) favorite reality show?
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I can’t REALLY comment on this particularly.
But my mother did call me once, when American Beauty came out on DVD (actually in her case it was probably VHS).
She wanted to know what all the fuss over that movie was. And in particular, what the young man was doing with the pie.
Turns out she’d rented American Pie, not American Beauty. Try explaining that ENTIRE movie to a 65 year old woman, with class and elegance!
Ha! My mom’s innocence was shattered when she tuned in to an episode of Nip/Tuck thinking it was just another medical drama like E.R. After she saw a butt shot of Julian McMahon while he was having sex with some woman on a counter… well, let’s just say attaing my life long dream to become a surgeon would now be a disappointment to my mother.
Well smarty pants, I am a Mom (age 54) and I watch The Bachelorette among others. Duh, do you really think people your parent’s age don’t get that there is sex going on in the fantasy suite? Come on, maybe your Mom is clueless, but not most of us!
lol Leigh I have a related story. My grandma and her friends wanted to go to the movies and didn’t know anything that was out so after scanning the movie times in the paper they decided that american pie sounded like a nice wholesum film. Oddly enough they stayed up until the pie scene, though I’m pretty sure they should have figured out before that that this was not for their demographic.
But my parents were destroyed by Flavor of Love which me and my sister watched in reveled in every week. More specifically it was the scene in which one of the girls s**t on the stairs. Now my dad has no shame and watches Dog The Bounty Hunter and Operation Repo. Damn you television.
My mom and I had that exact same conversation about the Bachelor and Bachelorette. “These guys are just using this as an excuse to have sex with a bunch of women!” Umm, yes, mom, apparently so.
And yes, it’s a little weird. Convos I don’t want to have with mom. Glad when she finally stopped watching those two.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/30/more-to-love-fox-orders-o_n_180659.html
Kristen please tell me you are going to TV Watch this when it comes out. My boyfriend is really disappointed he did not have the chance to be the Chubby Bachelor when he was single. The commercial is downright scary.
Yea that preview was disturbing on sooo many levels. I feel really bad for the guy it ends up being… way to throw a guy under the bus and humiliate him on National TV!
I believe an episode of it’s always sunny in Philadelphia led my mom to inquire as to what tea bagging is. I could not even bring myself to answer.
I was at my grandma’s the other day and a preview for The Bachelorette came on. I asked if she watched. She said she hadn’t. Then she asked (though it was really more a statement), “Don’t they sleep with all those guys?” Although I think she used the term “make love” *snicker* I said, “No, grandma. That’s only maybe the last three or four.”
it wasn’t a reality show, but i scripted cable show: when i saw nip/tuck in my mom’s tivo, i asked her “do you watch that?” “yes,” she responded. “mom!,” i said, “you’re too old to watch that show! it’s dirty!” i can’t even remember her response – i was so shocked she watches sean and christian get it on as much as i do! so embarrassed.
Once again, PopWatch writes about a topic I didn’t think other people had to deal with. My Mom’s very aware that people, “have sex out of wedlock all the time. Your generation wasn’t the first to discover sex.” But the idea that a woman, not a man, would go on national tv and obviously have sex with multiple men is beyond her. She thinks something else must be going on. It can’t be what she thinks it is, even with my younger sister insisting that no one thinks anything about it. I hope my younger sib doesn’t make her watch Surreal Life or Flavor of Love reruns. I don’t think I could handle Mom’s reactions.
I’m sorry but you need to test drive the car before you buy it. That’s all I’m saying….
meso soup
I’m sorry but you need to test drive the car before you buy it. That’s all I’m saying….
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Sorry Meso Soup I don’t agree.
I think its repulsive that the final three all sleep with the bachelor/ette. Its nasty. My mom things its gross too. But I still watch the show, I just know that if it were me, I wouldn’t be giving it up when it was “my turn” for the fantasy suite date that he’ll be having with two other women, yuck.
I guess I’m naive. All this time, I really thought the overnight date was just a night when they had time together to really talk without cameras around. I don’t see how you can commit to a man when you just slept with someone else the night before…