Moms are strangers in strange land in ‘Trading Spouses’
Like many others, this is my favorite time of the year, and I spend most of my weekends in the summer playing outside, regressing to my childhood. There’s nothing like biting into a sandwich at the beach and crunching down on sand (perhaps that is the true meaning of “sandwich”) or making chalk drawings of your future husband on a sidewalk (picture: Kathleen loves Enrique Iglesias, hearts and kisses, baby carriage, etc.).
There is no age limit on summer fun, right? Thank goodness, because I was beginning to worry that people might find it odd that a 29-year-old still enjoys catching fireflies in a jar or chases after an ice cream truck, screaming for dear life so the truck will soon stop and provide a high-calorie frozen treat.
Anyway, the moment I realized that I was, in fact, an adult and not a child on vacation, was when I began to feel anxious over the Democratic National Convention. No, I am not a supporter of Bush or Kerry, nor am I in any way politically driven; I was just worried that somehow this convention would affect my prime-time television watching. Will there be repeats and cancellations? How will reality TV handle the reality of … democracy?
To do my part for our country, I will try not to make waves and simply watch the shows that are on and limit my cursing to a minimum when shows dare air … a repeat. A new show premiered last week that may conflict with the Democrats’ platform on marriage – “Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy” (Tuesdays, Fox). Imagine, some people in our country can’t legally be married while other people are swapping their spouses for $50,000!
This show is pretty simple – each week two women with different backgrounds trade houses, spouses and lifestyles to see what happens when they experience how the other half lives. The first swap between a wealthy white woman and a black woman from a more modest household appeared to be the typical fish out of water scenario.
Tammy Nakamura, a strong-willed blonde and former trucker driver, lives in an affluent neighborhood in Dallas, and her new home in a lower income area was not exactly to her liking. From the first day, she was yelling at her new husband to fetch her coffee and a different dinner, had her new sons running around doing errands for her, and made some rude remarks about her new daughter’s weight and told her how she needed to cut back on her carbs.
Al Mela Biggins, Mom No. 2, seems to be getting along just fine with the Nakamura clan and kept her nutritional advice to herself – however, she did seem a bit out of place. The expensive home and foreign meals, along with traveling to the family lake house on the weekends did not make Al Mela as happy as she thought it would, and she wondered how she will help this family, who seems to have everything, spend its $50,000 prize money (an important part of the show) – while at the same time praying that Tammy spends her money appropriately for the Biggins family.
I’m interested to see how this show plays out – it could be a mother’s wildest dream. The families may revolt and send back their new mommies for the well-worn versions that they never appreciated, until now.