Reality shows have never been my cup of tea and I was even more convinced of their uselessness when the school PAC meeting was cancelled one fine Thursday evening because the PAC president didn’t want to miss the season finale of Survivor ! It was obvious that knowing who won the competition was much more important than the future of our children.

When my children were little, I wanted them to read and restricted their TV time and the TV restrictions were still in force when we came to Australia. Friends of my son told him many times that “your mother is weird” because I didn’t let my son watch Masterchef  and of course he wasn’t allowed to play MA games. His friends combined the two rules and told him Masterchef was classified under general category, so there is no real reason why my son shouldn’t watch it.

My reasons were pretty simple..Reality shows are controlled environment, where the producers manipulate human behaviour to suit the ratings. When you watch a movie, there is a story with a start and end and except you paying for the ticket, you don’t hold any control of the outcome of the movie. In a reality show the end is determined by making you believe that you hold the power to choose the winner by sending your vote !! And then the tears, the tantrums, the bitchiness, the attitude…I don’t see the reason why I must subject myself and my children to such atrocious behaviour that are now accepted as normal behaviour.

A very dear friend of mine didn’t miss a single episode of recent masterchef/or one of the cooking show because “apna” ( our own/Indian) person is a contestant and  just as my mother prayed for some dude in Kerala to win the idea star singer competition because he came from a poor family.

I am sure my son must have found it difficult to explain to his friends why he never watched masterchef or other reality shows..

Last Sunday, Yaya borrowed Truman show DVD from the library. I am not a fan of Jim Carrey, however this is one of my favourite movies and  I had hoped one day my children would watch it.

After the movie my son told me ” So this was the reason why you never let us watch reality shows eh?”

I smiled and gently nodded my head. ( But what I really wanted to do was scream “yes” and do a war dance, but I didn’t want to spoil the moment)