Richard Heene speaks to a reporter from the front door of his home in Fort Collins, Colo.
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The Heene family was reportedly shopping a reality TV show. Here are some ideas for a few episodes.
1 “Parenting help.” Diane Sawyer teams with Dr. Phil to help the Heene parents improve. First lesson: Don’t make your kids lie about being stuck in a helium balloon.
2 “Ye ol’ projectile project.” The kids practice launching each other into the air with a catapult they make with scraps from the junk yard.
3 “Intervention.” Jon Gosselin and Michael Lohan come for a little man-to-man talk with Richard Heene about the dangers of reality television.
When the Heenes allegedly told their kids to lie and fool America into believing their youngest son was trapped in a balloon floating over Colorado, somewhere there must have been worse cases of parental abuse taking place. But “from teaching your kids basic morality, this is right up there at the top,” said parenting expert and author Dr. Joanne Stern.
“What in the world kind of parents would model this kind of dishonesty and attitude that ‘we can use and abuse other people in our lives in order to get a little publicity?’” she asked.
Teaching children honesty lays a foundation for life, she said. Teaching kids dishonesty to further personal ambition is “sort of like prostituting your children for money.”
Dr. Lawrence Balter, a child psychologist and parenting expert, noted children have historically been exploited for work and are still put to labor in developing countries. The Heene’s alleged ambition for reality television and that of stage parents, just demonstrates “a more technologically savvy way to exploit them.”
“If these are attention seeking people the media is really doing them a big favor,” Balter said. “You don’t want to reward people for bad behavior, but in a sense that’s exactly what’s happening. Why are we giving them what they want?”
Twitter posts
talldrinkofh20: “Please put Richard Heene in jail and put those kids in a decent home.”
ProgressiveMews: “Police say #BalloonBoy was hoax. Media looks idiotic & I want tax $ back that CO spent on this.”
MelodeeCA: “Child Protective Services needs to investigate the family.”
mhclw: “For Halloween I’m wrapping myself in aluminum foil and going as a giant balloon with no kid inside.”
EyeBeCarlo: “lesson: don’t use your kids to further your search for fame. hustle on your own.”
Family dramas
The Heenes’ plan for a reality TV show about their family had plenty of precedence. Here are some prime examples of badly behaved and televised parents and children.
“The Osbournes,” 2002-2005. Addled Ozzy Osbourne, wife and two teens, brought MTV record ratings. Ozzy later said he was stoned the whole time.
“Growing up Gotti,” 2005. Mafia princess Victoria Gotti and three sons wallow in “opulence.” The bank recently foreclosed on their home.
“Kid Nation,” 2007-2008. Forty kids, 8-to-15, build a town and govern themselves in a “Lord of the Flies” experiment that drew attention from New Mexico’s labor department. A parent claimed some kids accidentally drank bleach.
“John and Kate Plus 8.” Set the bar for parents cashing in on kids.
