Brat Camp

I just need to have a moan about some reality tv. I already posted a comment to this effect in an ADD community but more ranting is required...

If the kids on this programme didn't have issues before then being watched by millions as they reveal the most personal and humiliating things about themselves and their lives would do it.

Also, why are parents being so shitty to kids who've already obviously been through hell??

It seemed that the families needed therapy, not just the kid being scapegoated for everything that's wrong. (Interestingly, in Temple times scape goats were literal goats. The scapegoat was sent out into the desert before Yom Kippur with the sins of the people as confessed by the high priest. It seems to me (from my extraordinarily well informed perspective based on 2 hours viewing!!) that these kids are like the scapegoats for their families. They've been sent out into the desert with their sins listed for them in letters from their parents. In this way the problems are about the kid not the environment. And granted I have no idea what the families have tried previously and whether this was a last resort)

Some of it is good. I'm all for people dealing with their shit and taking responsibility...we all have to do it!! But this just seems unnecesarily cruel. Lumping people with violent behaviour, abuse histories, substance abuse and ADHD together as if it's all the same thing really bothers me. They are presenting traumatic experiences, bad behaviour and a learning issue as the same thing!!! Ok, so this kid won't take his meds...it's a valid choice. I don't see how making him deal in the desert is going to help his ADHD. There are other treatment options!!!!