Do you watch reality television shows? I could be a reality
star. Honestly, it seems it doesn’t take much to be on reality television nowadays. You can even have your own reality show. In the 1960’s I missed my
chance, I guess. Teen mom – that was me. Teen Mom on MTV seems to be fairly
popular. Who knew back then?
Those girls have nothing on me. I had my third baby when I
was nineteen years old. My first, Tammy, was born when I was sixteen, a month
before my seventeenth birthday. I guess I was kind of unique in that I was married and was not pregnant when I got married. I was….a virgin when I got
married.
Somehow I survived – my babies did too – without much help
from anyone except for friendly advice and the occasional offer to babysit. You
know what else? My friend, Sande, did too. We were both teen moms with three
babies.
We had no idea that what we were doing could someday be viewed
as a potential for stardom. We spooned baby food into tiny mouths, rinse and washed
soiled diapers (there wasn’t such a thing as disposable diapers), rocked cranky
or sick babies, went without sleep, did laundry that we hung outside to dry, and
juggled schedules while keeping our sanity.
We did it because we wanted to be mommies. I can’t imagine being
a teenager and doing all of those mother things in front of a television
camera. I value my privacy. I can’t imagine, either, that anyone behaves as
they normally would without a camera recording it all.
I had two more babies – five children total – by the time I
was twenty five. I did it all without a – television show. And that’s not the
only reality show my life could fit. I am – was – a cougar before I even knew
there was such a thing. I recently celebrated my twentieth anniversary to Jeff,
who is sixteen and a half years younger than me – a second marriage for both of
us.
But that’s a story for another time.
