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Grimes/West: March 12, 2007
I was a little nervous about the Grimes family when I saw them making that answering-machine message — “We’re not in Japan, but we’ll get back to you as soon as we can,” or something like that. I don’t mind musical answering-machine messages, but it was something about Lori Grimes’ eyes. Her eyes were always wide open and she was always smiling and happy. I know that smiley, happy people exist in the world, but those eyes of hers made me nervous. It was a combination of her slightly crazy eyes and her penchant for singing whatever action she was doing, like making cheesecakes or getting kids out of bed. I just didn’t trust her and I don’t know why.
Lori Grimes seemed like a sweet, nice enough person, but whenever she or her husband, Doug, or her kids used the word “training,” that familiar sense of nervousness returned to me. Why do they use the word "training" when discussing how they “teach” their kids? Why not use the word "teach" or "show" or "demonstrate"? Training seems imposing and in some ways that’s what their style of parenting was doing. By controlling everything, including their beliefs, the parents were “training” their kids to act like them.
The Grimes kids weren’t the mindless robots Tracy West seemed to think, but they were a product of their upbringing. They were content kids, as they told Tracy, but they seemed a little bit sheltered. Everything was scheduled. They couldn’t even watch TV unless they chose the programming as a family. Family togetherness is a good thing, but too much can be off-putting. Ragan was allowed to do Irish step dancing because she wouldn’t have to move her hips in any kind of sexual way. Miles wasn’t allowed to drive to school. The Grimes’ were structured. So structured that Miles Grimes got upset when Tracy threw The Brain (odd name for a scheduling calendar, sounded kind of cultish) into the fire. I have to agree with him that throwing it into the fire was inconsiderate.
Thank god she didn’t throw a Bible into the fire. But I understand why Miles got real upset about the family calendar being burned because it showed what their family had done and what they were going to do. But why was The Brain a part of their memory keeping? What about scrapbooks and photos? It seemed strange. The kids were way too attached to The Brain, but throwing it into the fire was probably too drastic. And what was Doug Grimes teaching his son Miles about women’s work?
It upset me when Tracy talked about how Miles was taking on his father’s dependence on the mom to do all the cooking and cleaning because that was women’s work. Tracy West was right when she said no woman should have to be a servant to her family.
That was pretty much the only thing I found endearing about Tracy West. I mean, she was nice enough and not terribly annoying. She liked horror, but that wasn’t really played up a whole lot.
What I didn’t like was the “no boundaries” mantra she upheld. I was really glad when Lori Grimes showed Alaina West that having a soft-porn website is not healthy for a twenty-year-old. Alaina was a rock-band groupie and she was hooking up with older men and putting illicit photos of herself on a website that wasn’t being watched by her parents.
At the table meeting, Tracy West said that kids couldn’t stay innocent forever, but Alaina definitely needed some guidance and somebody to tell her that having that website wasn’t OK, and that hanging out with older men without any supervision was probably not giving her positive influences.
I’m glad that Lori got through to her and that Alaina’s going to try and change her ways and overhaul her lifestyle. And I’m glad that Katie finally got some attention, although I didn’t think a Katie Day was as necessary as a Family Day was. Katie just wanted to spend some quality time with her family. With Lori Grimes’ influence, she and her mom realized that they needed to spend more time together. It was nice to see Tracy West stepping up in her relationship with her daughter.
It was also good to see the West kids pitching in to help their dad, because Mike West did do a lot and they weren’t appreciative. He let them have it and told them they could be more respectful. And he finally saw Alaina’s website and had a heart-to-heart with her. Although, how could the mom let her daughter have a website like that with pictures of her daughter nearly naked in a bed with her friends? It just seemed so wrong.
On a final note, that table meeting was calm, cool and collected. I loved when Lori Grimes called Tracy West “pumpkin” and tried to get her to see that Alaina needed some guidance and support in changing her lifestyle.
I was happy to see Miles Grimes finally get to drive himself to school, though I was a little disappointed that Ragan Grimes didn’t take up the drums. I guess she was too into her Irish dancing and musical theater to give it up. Or maybe she didn’t take up the drum because The Brain told her not to. Either way, it’s probably best she didn’t become a hardcore rocker. God only knows what would happen.
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Mar 12, 2007 10:11 PM
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Hello Erin? Are you out there? Will there be a blog on last nights two new episodes of New Adventures of Old Christine?
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Mar 13, 2007 4:40 PM
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I just wanted to let you know that this show was horribly done. This is Alaina West.. I am 21 now and came across this review. To clear this up, I never had a website with those pictures. The crew members made that website up themselves and found pics of me to put on there..because I signed a contract, I couldn't do anything about it..and they made the pics look like I had nothing on..when indeed, everything was covered in each pic...more skin is shown in a bikini than those pics..I'm not a rock band groupie..I happen to know a band and they have been good friends of mine for over 2 years and I enjoy going to see them when they are in town..They never mentioned on the show that I was, at the time and still am, working a full time job and also attending school full time with a gpa of 3.7..They completely butchered me and this is just a request that I not be judged based on this show. Again, the show was extremely false and full of lies. I'm sorry but I had to put my two cents in. Thank you..
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Jun 26, 2007 1:56 PM
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yeah, miss daly?
you need to brush up on your knowledge of reality tv, because you obviously eat up everything the media has to offer. your critique of this episode is VERY surface level.
this is miles grimes. i see that alaina has already responded to this article, and i, being the horrible chauvinistic male that you make me and my dad out to be, will naturally defend my family.
first of all, the term "brain" is seldom EVER used in our family. RDF media, the company who produces the show, capitalized on that name and blew it out of proportion. if YOU were to lose your calender or wherever you keep your schedule, how would you "remember" anything? you wouldn't be able to keep your life straight because you'd have to commit thousands of things to memory. THIS is why we have joked that it should be called "the brain."
that brings me to my next topic. the calender was not burned. i did not know it at the time, but again the show was capitalizing off my emotions and reactions while leading you to believe that what tracy did was a horrible thing. well, congrats, you bought the lie just like my family did. they gave us the real one back after the show.
are you a believer? i ask because you said "Thank God she didn’t throw a Bible into the fire." Well whether you are or aren't, here are some useful facts: the Bible is the most sold book in the world, therefore, something in it or it's contents MUST be very valuable whether you are or aren't a believer.
Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."
that is knowledge if i've ever heard it. train in this passage is interchangeable with teach. but if you think about it, training is teaching. psychology. society associates the word with animals, but the original meaning of the word means to "instruct, discipline, teach" according to the etymology dictionary written in 1542.
"Her eyes were always wide open and she was always smiling and happy. I know that smiley, happy people exist in the world, but those eyes of hers made me nervous. It was a combination of her slightly crazy eyes and her penchant for singing whatever action she was doing, like making cheesecakes or getting kids out of bed. I just didn’t trust her and I don’t know why."
everything that is mentioned in this paragraph that you unfortunately wrote about another human being whom you don't know from Adam is EXACTLY what the RDF director TOLD her to do...she doesn't sing while cooking dinner or dessert, or when she is getting us out of bed (which she doesn't do anyways). they told her to be smiley all the time and to make songs...SHE HATED IT! naturally my mom is a positive upbeat and outgoing lady, but your vision of her is severely skewed from watching this show.
i read some of your other blogs about wife swap and i honestly suggest you quit. you have NO right to judge anyone on these shows as they have been twisted and have manipulated families into doing thing of which they did not want to do. being on the show was physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausting and the 45+ hours of film the producers have to work with can in no way be cut down to 30 minutes/family and maintain and accurate representation of who they really are as people. stop blogging about this show.
forgive me if i sound harsh, but this article is more then slightly offensive. reading your work about other people tells me about what kind of person YOU are, which is ironic because you have no idea whom you are critiquing on these shows.
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Sep 30, 2008 11:01 PM
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oh, my email address is all_4_dios@cox.net if you would like to talk about this further.
i'm sorry that i sound critical, but you must understand how i felt reading this. if you'd like, i could tell you about the REAL "reality tv" experience =)
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Sep 30, 2008 11:04 PM
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