Everybody's Kids: A Research Report for Television on Parenting in Today's Culture

A research report for television? Sounds like an oxymoron to me...and in the case of this video, it is. Hosted by insufferably perky-yet-earnest anchorwoman for Green Bay's WBAY-TV, Hazel Sanchez, Everybody's Kids is a well-meaning, but ultimately muddled attempt to provide an incisive, authoritative look at the problems facing parents and kids in today's changing society. Important and timely stuff, no doubt. Unfortunately, the problems begin when Hazel dons a poodle skirt to talk about family life in the '50s and the visuals fade to Ozzie and Harriet b&w. For the balance of the video's sixty slickly-produced minutes, the tone, pacing, focus, and presentation of information are pure, facile, network TV special schtick, complete with copious factoids, free-floating quotes and statistics (always from a major study or a national poll), sober testimony from sundry experts in the field, and sound bites from both successful and wayward teens. In all of this, there are no particular revelations: parents in the '90s are harried both economically and psychologically; families are no longer uniformly nuclear or uniformly cohesive; divorce can have negative effects on a kid's self-esteem; kids need quality time and respect, from birth on in order to be grounded and healthy adults. While the video attempts to stay open-minded concerning changing family demographics and circumstances, there seems to be a subtle, yet decidedly conservative heartland spin at work in the background (big families are somehow better; two working parent families are somehow less nurturing). Despite these considerable shortcomings, Everybody's Kids could be a useful springboard for broader discussion in high schools or parenting groups (it comes with a good study guide), and would also be a worth considering for public library collections. Optional. Aud: H, P. (G. Handman)