YIKES!!! The last thing I would want is this crowd teaching my kid about sex and love!
Posted on 01/12/2008 1:11:51 PM PST by Chi-townChief
Thank goodness Nickelodeon executives are reacting responsibly to the news that 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears - star of the network's tween hit "Zoey 101" - is pregnant.
Of course, I don't mean the TV big suits decided to cancel her show and stop promoting an unwed teen as someone to emulate.
Oh no. The cancellation of the series would cost millions, especially since next year's season has already been filmed. So, of course, canceling is not an option.
Instead, Nickelodeon bigwigs are considering airing a special for its young viewers "that would focus on issues of sex and love," according to a network spokesperson.
I'm sure parents of the thousands of kids that watch the weekly show - which caters to 9- to 14-year-olds - breathed a huge sigh of relief at that news.
Our kids may now be idolizing a pregnant teenager but at least they would get some sex education at the same time.
Yeah, right.
I don't know what those TV execs are thinking, but I - and most of the parents I talked to - don't feel Nickelodeon's first priority should be doling out information on sex.
I think most of us are more concerned with the negative example being set by Spears than worrying about a lack of sexual knowledge among our tweeners.
Let's face it. In this day and age, there aren't many tweens who don't understand about the birds and the bees. Most of us parents have had the big sex talk with our kids by this age and even if you didn't, by fifth grade health class everyone is in the know.
I don't think Jamie Lynn Spears got pregnant because she lacks knowledge about sex and birth control. I think she may have lacked some self-control - which got her in this trouble in the first place - but I doubt it was because she didn't know any better.
So how Nickelodeon thinks a TV special will help is beyond me.
News accounts report Nickelodeon is in talks with journalist Linda Ellerbee to host the special. According to an AP news story, Ellerbee said the special program would include a discussion about the right time to have sex and the value system of parents and friends.
"Right now Nick is trying to do - and what I am trying to do - is figure out what is the best thing to do for the kids," Ellerbee said.
But how can Ellerbee, or anyone else at Nickelodeon, know what's best for every kid? Isn't that a lot of information to cover in the span of a TV special? How can they possibly think they could cover such delicate and intimate subjects within the confines of television rules and regulations?
I'm not trying to make Jamie Lynn Spears out to be a monster or evil for becoming pregnant at 16. She's a young girl who obviously made a bad choice and now has to live with the consequences.
I don't think she should be hidden away much like they did in the olden days when I attended a Catholic high school in the city. If a fellow student became pregnant back then, she was whisked out of school when she started "to show," never to return again. And God forbid if you asked any questions. The nuns were very good at playing dumb to our inquiries.
But that doesn't mean a pregnant teen should be starring in a hit series about a high school freshman.
Unless, of course, that series also showed the true realities about a high schooler trying to study and go to prom while raising a baby. That's probably the best sex education Nickelodeon could provide for its young viewers.
Kimberly Brehm may be reached at kbrehm@southtownstar.com or (708) 802-8815.
So: her parents didn’t do any better job of raising Jamie than they did with her older sister.
Surprise, surprise!
What else would you expect from white trash?
Maybe a book on how to raise children???? What do you think?
I may be wrong but I get the distinct impression that entire family is so much white trash.
I think you'd have to teach them all how to read first.
...and probably for good reason. Pregnancy is contagious.
YIKES!!! The last thing I would want is this crowd teaching my kid about sex and love!
When my kids were little, I forbid them to watch Linda Ellerbee or Nick News. Just over Christmas break my son, who is now 21, said, "Mom, remember when you never used to let us watch Nick News?" I said, "That's why you turned out to be such a good conservative."
Are you severely sarcasm-impaired?
LOL!!! It sure is. Now a days we have a nursery in our school so the mothers don’t have to drop out. Of course, some of the girls just keep popin them out and grandma watches them. Then there was the girl who kept getting suspended for fighting. She was the mother of two.
Wow, harsh words for what I think is a Republican family. Also, nobody would have been the wiser if Spears had obtained an abortion. She actually does deserve some respect here.
Pregnancy is contagious at that age until our society convinces them that having no children is better and that Mexicans can fill the gap in populaiton just fine.
Well, Mom Spears is WRITING a book on how to raise children. Somehow I don’t think it should be taken too seriously, particularly while knowing that Jamie’s 19 y.o. boyfriend was living in the house with them, and spent many evenings in Jamie’s bed behind locked doors (accdg to original press reports). Mom didn’t see that as a red flag apparently.
Not at all - I just happen to know what Brehm is.
Actually, it probably would've headlined TMZ and E!.
The amazing thing is that Britney responded by being jealous of all the media attention her sister got.
I gotta admit I'm curious as to where the "Angry Beavers" would come in...
When Nickelodeon allowed that Tick tick tick ad to be on & it scared my daughter that was it for me. No Nickelodeon here.
I believe Rosie O’Donnell is the lead angry beaver.
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