The REAL Real Housewife of New Jersey

Reality television is here to stay. I don't like most of it, I prefer scripted shows with professional writers offering up first-rate stories and intelligent, funny, witty, or compelling dialogue. The reality stars I've seen are boring, narcissistic, bumbling goofballs. Their reality, in the horribly edited way we've witnessed it, is insulting to America's collective intelligence, yet America keeps watching. My favorite reality shows actually offer up some real reality:  from the History Channel, American Pickers and Pawn Stars. And although these shows do have a following (thank goodness), it is the Bravo Channel's line up of "Housewives" series that really brings the viewers. I've tried to watch these shows as a lot of my peers enjoy them immensely. I can see why they are so popular. Seemingly attractive women who wear designer clothes, despise their spouses, parade their spoiled, obnoxious children, and whine and complain endlessly when they are not embroiled in some kind of WWE grudge match with one of the other "contestants"...I mean "housewife". It is escapism in it's highest form for regular housewives/moms. Our lives may be mundane, but at least we don't live like that! The shows are train wrecks we know we shouldn't watch, candy that will rot our brains, but still people tune in each week to see these "real life dramas" unfold. I tried to watch, I really did. I just simply had to stop, however, when those shows left the Left coast and came East. I drew the line when the Housewives series came to my own home state and offered up these 'characters' as reality stars.
I do not pretend that my way of life is the only way to do the jobs I hold, wife and mother. I do, however, know a lot of people in my line of work. We are as different as the snowflakes that fall in New Jersey winters, but none of the women I know carry on like these so-called housewives. Most of us shop at Wal*Mart, Target, and TJ Maxx, not at The Mall at Short Hills. Most of us wear Mommy clothes (jeans, sweats, t-shirts, sweatshirts, most of which are covered in baby drool, spit up, puke, or poop or a combination of these things). Most of us try to shower each and every morning, but with a newborn baby, sick child (or more) who kept us up all night and appointments to make during the day (doctor's office, dry cleaning, grocery store), we are not always awarded such luxury. Most of us would love a designer bag (or several), but we cling to the free diaper bag the hospital gave us when we took home our baby, even if that baby is seven years old now! The New Jersey Housewives I know are not bitches, do not want to scratch their social circles' collective eyes out, and value the friendships they've made. They care for their children, volunteer in the community, populate MOMS Clubs, Cub Scout Packs and Brownie Troops, PTAs, work hard at home and many at jobs outside the home, and still feel guilty that they are not doing enough. These women are the heroes who live in my communities and countless communities around the country. They are the pillars of our society who keep the world turning for America. Yet these typical lives are not glamorous nor fascinating. The public wants fantasy in their reality television. I get that. I just know that we should leave the television world to the professionals - I'd watch Glee, Grey's Anatomy, or the Big Bang Theory any day and twice on Sunday because those shows are pure escapism written by true talents. As for The Real Housewives of New Jersey (or any other state/city/region for that matter), I have the starring role in  my life. I think that's enough reality for one day!