The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom

Via Char, I learned of a new TLC “reality” show called The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom.

The premise:

…each one-hour The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom broadcast will follow a different mother as she abandons a life normally guided by her children’s schedule to instead focus on career goals she previously gave up on.

Each episode will conclude with the mom either deciding to “pursue her new dual life” or return to her family, secure in the fact that motherhood is the only occupation for her.

Holy smokes, I don’t even know where to begin.

Aside from the blatant sensationalism, don’t start me on the term “soccer mom”, and the fact that she has to lie to her family for this undertaking (families think the mom is a a spa or something when she’s actually at a job), my biggest beef with what I’ve read?

The entire premise of the show appears to treat a mother’s employment as a lark, or a game to be played if she up and decides she wants to work.

I’m willing to venture a guess, though not a scientific one, that most working mothers need to work, and, it’s not a game. If they need to work, they’re at work, and, not “trying it out” because their husbands have the “real” job.

I watch as much TV as the next person (My new fascination? American Idol and the tales of Danny Noriega and David Archuleta to be specific. Yeah, I know.), so, I’m not going to wail about the decline of society due to reality TV, but, this one bugs me.