Parents in the Crosshairs
Part Two of the "Kid Nation" essays

There is no way to sugarcoat my reaction to the parents of the children who were employed on "Kid Nation."

Parents, you've done wrong. Do you even realize how seriously underpaid your children were? When you total up the hours (960 hours that the production company admits to…40 days times 24 hours) you sold your kids into life-long notoriety for less than the minimum wage!!!

The images of "Kid Nation" will never go away. Never. How's that Five Thousand Dollars sound now?

What possessed you to sacrifice your children onto the altar of Fame? Look, all parents suffer anxiety when they send their kids to Summer Camp, but to place the welfare of the most precious gift God will ever give you into the hands of the entertainment business is beyond the pale. You knew it wasn't a "camp" as the producers and CBS claim.

Your kids were on camera, most days from 7 AM to Midnight. Did you really believe, when all you have to do is watch the reaction of say a crowd at a NFL game turning into idiots the moment a television pans the crowd that your child would somehow not notice that they were being video taped? Is that what passes for "Reality" in your household?

Don't you see the consequences of putting young lives into the ravenous maw of what passes for popular entertainment these days? You have put your children into the line of "dots" that connect all kids in show business down through the decades. From Jackie Coogan in the 1920’s to today’s Lindsay Lohan and Britney Sprears. What possible benefits did you imagine could come of this participation…participation that specifically excluded you as a Parent?

The moment the producers brought up the "Confidentiality Agreement," didn't the alarm bells go off? If Catholic priests come under suspicion, don't you think Hollywood types deserve some scrutiny? Did you even realize that in Law, throughout most of film and television production, parents are to be "within sight and sound of their children at all times?"

Why do you think they call them Stage Parents? There is simply no way to pretend that kids working on a television production can do without a Set Teacher. No way. It's not rational. Nothing excuses sending your kid off in the middle of the school year to participate in a venture where so little good can be expected.

Close your eyes and think back to when you were a child. Recall the real behavior of your classmates in junior high. What do you think is going to happen the day after "Kid Nation" premiers? Think your child is going to be treated well in the hallways and classrooms of their school? One of the great fictions we all live with…a gigantic urban myth…is that kids don't come with an instruction manual.

Yes they do. The instruction manual is You; Your life, your experiences…your memories of childhood with all its warts and tumors.

Let's talk about these so-called confidentiality agreements. They aren't worth the paper they are printed on. No contract based on fraud is binding. Some very practiced artificers deceived you. On the money alone you signed away your child's right to protection. First, overtime for any kid anywhere is illegal. Yes, illegal is the correct term. McDonald's can't do that. Wal-Mart can't exceed the hours posted for a Minor. Why do you think Hollywood can? One phone call to the theatrical union responsible for these Reality Shows, AFTRA, would have told you that Major Role Performers have a minimum scale of $6,000.00 per episode.

There are rules for everything these days, so let me share with you the Good News as a way to light the path out of this darkness. Disavow these contracts. Your children certainly can and probably will the moment they become an Adult in the eyes of the Law, especially the older kids who will have had three years to learn what being on television really does to your life.

It's called "Dis-affirmance." Read about it at this website: minorcon.org/childrenaschattels.

You will be protected if you disavow these onerous contracts. You see, unless contracts with Minors are Court Approved, they are, for all intents and purposes, worthless…if not now, then certainly the moment your child turns Eighteen…when they can act on their own and in their own interests.

Disavow. Disaffirm. Abrogate these contracts. Save the next group of "Kid Nation" kids who are even now lining up in at least eight states to be exploited.