'16 and Pregnant' Not So True to Reality

16 and Pregnant is one of MTV’s most popular reality shows.

It chronicles the lives of teenage girls -- who aren’t always exactly 16 -- and their partners who are facing the challenges of becoming parents at extremely young ages.

The format is usually the same: The program shows the young woman doing activities she enjoys, hanging out with friends, shopping and in-school activities before ending the segment with a line that is something like, “But all that’s about to end because I’m pregnant!”

Next comes some back story about the relationship between the about-to-be parents. Sometimes, the young couple is still together. Often, their relationship deteriorates over the course of the pregnancy, leaving the young woman holding the bag. Other times, the couples hang in there, and some have even gone on to get married. There have been "baby daddies" who cheat on the young women, too.

In one episode, the young man was physically and verbally abusive. Sometimes these young fathers  just want to be, well, kids. They want to continue partying and hanging out with friends and not have to face the demands of parenting.

The young woman’s parents are almost always part of the episode, which typically centers on her. Paternal grandparents sometimes make appearances, especially if the young mom is coming from a bad home situation and needs to live with them.

After we get a complete picture of mom’s situation, the baby is born and we take a look at how mom’s doing with her new baby. We see the mother getting up late at night, feeding and soothing a crying baby and taking the baby to the doctor. Then mom talks about her future plans for school and work and possibly her relationship, and the camera stops rolling.

Not a whole lot about this show makes becoming a teen parent seem like the worst thing in the world. There is sometimes a mention of financial difficulty, but these moms are shown in labor, then miraculously they come home where there are all sorts of trappings for an infant and no explanation of who paid for them or where they came from. The numerous items a newborn needs -- and these are necessities and not the "OMG-how-cute-is-this" wants -- can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

And that’s just the baby gear. The babies are usually bottle-fed, but who is buying the formula, which can run as much as $20 a can?

There are other costs associated with babies, such as insurance, housing and utilities that are almost never mentioned. Even in episodes where the parents get jobs or their own apartments, the high cost of parenting is glossed over. Because the show ends in the first weeks of the baby’s life, there is usually no mention of day care, which can  be as much as $1,000 a month for an infant -- and some of the girls have twins.

There are hints that these girls are reimbursed to appear on the show. The mothers who appear on the spinoff show “Teen Mom” are definitely getting paid top dollar, and they might be compensated for cooperating with stories about them in weekly magazines such as US and In Touch.

What about the average teen who finds herself in this position and doesn’t have a supportive family or a contract to be on television? She is in for a rude awakening.

I am not implying that MTV is the most credible source for parenting information, but surely some young people who are watching this show are impressionable. I think that if MTV is going to show how hard parenting can be, then it should show how hard parenting can be. There’s a greater cost than just strained romantic relationships and arguments with mom and dad.