I'm a TV girl. I know others who are movie men -- they go see more in a month (sometimes even a week) than I do in a whole year. But I watch TV. Isn't that why I write that big check to the cable company every month? I don't let it impede me from living the rest of my life. If I want to go out to dinner, on a walk or shopping in the evening, I do so. That's why there's DVR.
Anyway, after the Thursday rerun of "Grey's Anatomy," I didn't change the channel and ended up watching "Primetime" on ABC. The show featured a group of kids in Arizona's Department of Juvenile Corrections safe schools. Some were abused when they were younger. Some needed medication for psychological issues. Among their crimes were theft, abuse, disorderly conduct, drug possession and manslaughter.
Watching these kids on TV, it was hard to imagine them committing these crimes. Yet they seemed so matter-of-fact about them. Only one girl showed great embarrassment over having been convicted of child molestation. And of course, like great television everywhere, by the end of the show all the featured teens were seemingly on their way to a better life.
What really saddened me was when they asked one girl who loved her. She said she didn't know. They asked her if she loved herself and she said, "No."
This girl and another one ended up having teenage pregnancies, wanting to find someone to love them and for them to love in return. They both said they wanted to give their children everything they didn't have, including a loving mother-child relationship.
It's just so sad.
We've always known that one way children try to get attention is to act out. That's why it's so important not to react strongly to bad behavior (I had to stand idly by yesterday as my daughter threw a tantrum on the floor of Wal-Mart's vision center.) and to praise good behavior. Kids want feedback and they're going to get it any way they can.
It makes me wonder how much of a difference an extra hug here or a "good job" there would have made in the lives of the kids who were on "Primetime." Nobody will ever know.