Why we fell for balloon boy and what my son did weekend before last

If you haven’t heard about balloon boy then you need to get out from under a rock. Also, how are you reading this if you haven’t heard of that? Just in case let me give you the quick update, everyone got freaked out because some parents claimed their 6 year old boy climbed into a helium balloon they constructed as a science experiment. Pretty much all day Friday it was the news story everyone talked about. Then the balloon finally set down and the boy wasn’t around. Suddenly the parents thought, hmmm maybe he went in the attic instead and presto boy is found safe and sound. The latest news on the matter seems to indicate that the agencies in charge of the rescue are looking into pressing charges on the parents because it was a planned hoax. The family was involved with a reality show, Wife Swap, and was trying to cash in with the balloon fame.

This isn’t new. Many families have tried to get fame and money from these kind of things including the octomom and the garbage that is going on with Jon and Kate. We seem happy to point fingers at the families but are completely missing the real problem.

We are screwed up people.

There I said it. We are all part of the problem. The news has to become more and more sensational. They are one of the single biggest factors in the recession. Sensational reporting on the state of the economy took a bad situation and made it much much worse. I would love to blame the news but it sells because that is what we want. Recently I have been through Swine Flu, rather I am going through it, with my family. It isn’t fun but I’ve had much worse. Seriously, I can think of many times in my life I’ve been more ill and my kids have been more ill. Rota Virus was one of the worst we’ve ever been through. Shudder. Despite the reality of the illness the news has blown it so far out of proportion that people have cancelled trips and gone Howard Hughes to try and avoid the perils of H1N1.