The Little Couple

  • Thread starter Thread starter lovemyboys
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lovemyboys

Guest
Does anyone watch Jen and Bill? I love that show. Question-- they are Catholic (Jen once described herself as a “good Catholic girl”). The show now is focusing on them finding a surrogate mom to carry their child since carrying a child would put Jen’s life in danger (she’s only 42 inches tall). What would the Church tell Catholics in this position about having children?
 
Use NFP to avoid for serious reasons. Surrogacy is against the teaching of the Church because it does not follow God’s plan for life (coming from sex within marriage). For them, I believe adoption would be the option that allows them to live according to the teachings of the Catholic church.
 
This show is plain silly in soooooooo many ways.

It should be called “Hey, Look At The Mi*^gets”! It makes me cringe, the increase in kids who stare and point since this show came on is noticeable.

The Church’s laws on morality apply EVEN to us with dwarfism. She is apparently a CINO.

ETA - many many many women with dwarfism, and women who are far smaller than the woman on this show, carry babies. The huge 4 inches I tower over her made no difference. I know women who are 30 inches tall who have had successful pregnancies.
 
kage_ar said:
This show is plain silly in soooooooo many ways.

It should be called “Hey, Look At The Mi*^gets”! It makes me cringe, the increase in kids who stare and point since this show came on is noticeable.

The Church’s laws on morality apply EVEN to us with dwarfism. She is apparently a CINO.

ETA - many many many women with dwarfism, and women who are far smaller than the woman on this show, carry babies. The huge 4 inches I tower over her made no difference. I know women who are 30 inches tall who have had successful pregnancies.
Click to expand...
Just curious…do you also feel that way about Little People Big World? I always thought these shows were helpful in increasing awareness and understanding of people with dwarfism or various disabilities. I’ve always felt inspired to watch how the Roloffs overcome obstacles in their life despire the difficulties they face due to their dwarfism…it kind of gives me encouragement in my own life to not give up or let obstacles stop me from achieving my goals. kwim?

ETA it may be very possible that this woman is not aware of Church teaching regarding surrogates. I was not aware of it for a long time even though I was a faithful and practicing Catholic. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.
 
The Roloff’s have a good family show. It is about so much more than “I can get a show because I am a dwarf”. Heck, I know Matt and he is a good guy.
 
Jen and Bill’s show doesn’t really seem to serve a purpose…the Roloffs - I like them and their show is pretty neat. Now there’s even “Little Chocolatiers” - my goodness!

Kage - I think you should get your own show called “Big Church, Little Catholic!” 😃 I’d watch!!!

Kage - If Amy Roloff can have TWINS, certainly Jen could have a singleton, no? It seems they’ve gone from “Can we do this?” to immediately jumping to “Let’s see how many eggs we can harvest,” and they still haven’t gotten a real answer as to whether she could carry on her own or not. I also think I remember hearing she was Catholic.
 
kage_ar said:
The Roloff’s have a good family show. It is about so much more than “I can get a show because I am a dwarf”. Heck, I know Matt and he is a good guy.
Click to expand...
What would you say is the difference between the shows? I’ve only watched the Little Couple a few times…I watch the Roloff’s all the time, though. I love their family…and their messy house makes me feel much better about my mess, lol…
 
masondoggy said:
What would you say is the difference between the shows? I’ve only watched the Little Couple a few times…I watch the Roloff’s all the time, though. I love their family…and their messy house makes me feel much better about my mess, lol…
Click to expand...
Roloff’s show has more too it than just size. You can tell the show was well developed.

The Little Couple show comes off as a “hey, people watch that other one one, let’s another show on with midgets”.
 
kage_ar said:
Roloff’s show has more too it than just size. You can tell the show was well developed.

The Little Couple show comes off as a “hey, people watch that other one one, let’s another show on with midgets”.
Click to expand...
It’s ironic, I watch the little people shows because they are NORMAL people (especially the Roloffs–LOVE Amy because of what kind of Mom she is (her size has nothing to do with me being her fan)). Other reality shows with normally SIZED people tend to show average-sized people who are a little nutty.

I could see how children who are little people could be helped by these shows. It seems that it could be an empowering message to see the Roloffs and the Arnolds.

Kage, you’re a little person? I’m inspired to know that. 🙂
 
sanctareparata said:
Kage - If Amy Roloff can have TWINS, certainly Jen could have a singleton, no? It seems they’ve gone from “Can we do this?” to immediately jumping to “Let’s see how many eggs we can harvest,” and they still haven’t gotten a real answer as to whether she could carry on her own or not. I also think I remember hearing she was Catholic.
Click to expand...
I think that Jen’s type of dwarfism is much different than Amy’s.
 
kage_ar said:
Roloff’s show has more too it than just size. You can tell the show was well developed.

The Little Couple show comes off as a “hey, people watch that other one one, let’s another show on with midgets”.
Click to expand...
I see what you are saying and I completely understand. I’ve had that thought too, like it’s a copycat thing.

However, look at the other side of the coin…regardless of the intentions of these shows I think they will go a long way of raising awareness, especially among youth and “normalizing” Little People (please don’t take that the wrong way, not to say that you aren’t “normal”) to the public. It may do a lot to prevent or minimize discrimination and ridicule, especially for young dwarfs who have to go to school and deal with teasing, kwim?
 
I also wanted to say that I never knew or realized that the word “midget” was offensive to dwarfs until I started watching LPBW.
 
masondoggy said:
I see what you are saying and I completely understand. I’ve had that thought too, like it’s a copycat thing.

However, look at the other side of the coin…regardless of the intentions of these shows I think they will go a long way of raising awareness, especially among youth and “normalizing” Little People (please don’t take that the wrong way, not to say that you aren’t “normal”) to the public. It may do a lot to prevent or minimize discrimination and ridicule, especially for young dwarfs who have to go to school and deal with teasing, kwim?
Click to expand...
Soapbox time 🙂

These shows can harm as well. People watch them, and less-than-intelligent people giggle and make comments in the living room. Those people have kids. Those kids see me in WalMart and have zero idea that I am a human being who, after a long day of work, does not really feel like hearing “Look at that!” every time I encounter a child in the store.

The parents? They just act as if this is fine.

If a device would make sure only intelligent people watched these shows, they would be great 🙂
 
kage_ar said:
Soapbox time 🙂

These shows can harm as well. People watch them, and less-than-intelligent people giggle and make comments in the living room. Those people have kids. Those kids see me in WalMart and have zero idea that I am a human being who, after a long day of work, does not really feel like hearing “Look at that!” every time I encounter a child in the store.

The parents? They just act as if this is fine.

If a device would make sure only intelligent people watched these shows, they would be great 🙂
Click to expand...
That must be very hard to deal with all of the time. I can’t even imagine, as a parent, allowing my child to make a comment like that without correcting them. I think it’s natural for children to take notice and comment, but it’s our job as parents to teach them that it’s not nice to stare or comment and that it hurts feelings. It’s really unfortunate that there are parents out there that are not only refusing to do their job, but encouraging the kids as well. 😦
 
From the few snippets of the show that I’ve seen, I think Jen’s doctor was concerned about her lung power and what the weight of the baby might do for her breathing. I just remember seeing a commerical where she was breathing into those tubes that try to make your lungs stronger to see how strong her lungs were to see if children were possible. Since they seem to be going down the surrogacy route I’d assume that the doctor said that Jen’s lungs weren’t strong enough to carry a baby.
 
masondoggy said:
That must be very hard to deal with all of the time. I can’t even imagine, as a parent, allowing my child to make a comment like that without correcting them. I think it’s natural for children to take notice and comment, but it’s our job as parents to teach them that it’s not nice to stare or comment and that it hurts feelings. It’s really unfortunate that there are parents out there that are not only refusing to do their job, but encouraging the kids as well. 😦
Click to expand...
Believe me, I am usually able to let kids get away with a whole lotta lookin - but recently they just are so vocal.

I can always tell the parents who are teaching their kids manners, they respond to the kid’s with “Yes, some people are small” or ask my name or whatever. I love those parents!
 
kage_ar said:
Believe me, I am usually able to let kids get away with a whole lotta lookin - but recently they just are so vocal.

I can always tell the parents who are teaching their kids manners, they respond to the kid’s with “Yes, some people are small” or ask my name or whatever. I love those parents!
Click to expand...
One time when my son was 2-3 we went through a drive-thru and he said loudly “Mommy, why is that man brown?!” He said it LOUD and I was mortified. I didn’t know what to say in front of the guy, I know he heard it. I ended up saying nothing at the time because I was stammering on my response. So from his perspective he may have thought that I just didn’t care. So don’t always assume that the parents silence means they approve, sometimes our kids just mortify us speechless, lol!
 
There is also a show about a little person dog trainer on Animal Planet.

I am on the fence about all these shows. It seems like we should be at the point where people accept most families are just trying to live their lives (no matter what challenges they are faced with) without people pointing and questioning. It seems like these types of shows allow people to stare and question at length. On the other hand, maybe these shows give more understanding into the lives of people who appear different but again are just trying to live their lives. There just aren’t enough hours to have shows that highlight every challenge faced by families if that is the point of these shows.

I did see a show recently about a little couple who adopted a child with dwarfism from Albania (or somewhere in Eastern Europe). That child was given such a gift to have parents who understand his challenges, and who knows if any other family would have adopted him. Perhaps that would be an option for the little couple seeking surogacy.
 
I like Little People Big World because its interesting and has depth, I tried watching The Little Couple and I was like people like this show? It’s like lets watch short statured people eat dinner, lets watch short statured people take a walk, lets watch short statured people at a business meeting or whatever. I thought it was completely boring. Why is watching shorter people having dinner out anymore interesting than having average size people have dinner out. It seems all most like zoo -ish, like lets watch the short people. :rolleyes:

And to answer the question no, surrogacy is not an option for a Catholic woman.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top