Is compassion out of fashion?

[Kif]

I've had a binge of rubbish 'lifestyle' type TV programmes, and they've given me a bellyache.

EXHIBIT A

Why does Anthea "Sneer at people who don't have time to polish their silver" Turner have a TV show, but not Marla "You're not behind" FLYLady.

I saw an apisode of perfect housewife featuring two young mums. The whole tone was 'you should be ashamed of yourself'. There was no practical tips to the business of running a house day-in day out. I think she was talking about scented drawer liners . Then made the women spring clean their house (not even Kim and Aggie style cleaning-squads).

The FLYLady is so much more constructive and encouraging. Anthea? Frankly she has no qualification to tell me how to be a good housewife.

( deep breath; deep breath )

EXHIBIT B

I watched 'help I'm a teen mum'. And the 'expert nanny' was undermining the young mums. For example, she brought one of them to tears because the girl didn't want to spoon feed her 10month old because he clamped his mouth shut. Errmmm - heard of baby led weaning? I feed my baby not far off how this teenager was feeding her baby - and if anyone had labelled me as 'irresponsible' or 'given up' I'd be very

( deep breath; deep breath )

I get so irritated when people undermine mothers.

In answer to the thread title. Yes.

Society as a whole seems to like to judge and criticise/find lacking at the moment, but rarely offer constructive advice.

It also seems to ignore the big problems in favour of offering criticism over the little ones.

(Have watched neither of those things btw, just commenting in general)

I also thought compassion had disappeared and gone out of fashion and it made me feel really sad but recently I've rediscovered it in a big way through my voluntary work with a national charity.

There are compassionate people out there and lots on Mumsnet - I've not been a member long but every day I read posts from compassionate people wanting to help/support others.

Sadly tv these days only seems to want to judge and criticise, I agree with the comments about Anethea Turner, Simon Cowell etc. I do watch some reality tv but only when I know the presenter/expert is professionally qualified, IMO these people do tend to give a balance of critcisam and compassion.

Well exactly malory.

But I see the OPs point. Which is exactly why it's best to avoid it all.

I was in the mood for baby-themed vacuous entertainment.

Say, Tanya Byron, manages to swim on the cess pit of voyeur TV and come up smelling of roses. I'm inclined to agree with you - morgansauntie - that people with proper professional credentials are more responsible, and more broad minded.

Anthea and the other lot - they're like really bad MILs. "Nyeeeh - I did it this way - I'm more experienced than you - you have to do it my way (Child!)".

LL - yes, Kif from futurama - he was the star of the show imo .

IMO I've just seen the most bizarre name for a reality tv programme on the BBC website it's 'Pramface Mansion' are they having to turn to absurd names because there are so many reality programmes out there?