In the past centuries, reality TV shows has become one of the most common forms of entertainment in the many households. “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is a popular reality TV show aired by TLC, featuring a “Toddlers and Tiaras” star Alana Thompson, who is well known as the ‘Honey Boo Boo Child’ by many, and her “redneck” family as they screen their daily life in rural Georgian. The show was thought to be one of the most controversial reality TV shows of all time and although the TV show series quickly became a well-discussed topic for the internet and has produced a great number of audience for TLC, critics argued that the TV show series itself is a form of child abuse and with some characterizing the show as "offensive," "outrageous," and "exploitative”.
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Family structure is often a major contributor to children’s healthy development, using the TV show’s family as an example, their family structure established a complex stepfamily in the society; a biological mother of all the children and a stepfather of two children. Despite the coordinate family structure in both married and cohabiting parent families, studies have shown that children in cohabiting parent families or complex stepfamily may not receive the same social, emotional and institutional supports that children in married parent families receive. (Manning, 2015) During the first half of the show, Mike took Alana out for a father and daughter’s date, from that we could clearly see how Alana’s father cherishes spending time with her more than the other children as Alana is the only biological child of him in the family, he said “the kid is growing up too fast and she just needs to slow down a bit while I can spend time with her.” (Lexton, Rogan & Reddy, 2012); this may cause the other children in the family to sense the feeling of being left out and not equally loved by the stepparent. Being a stepparent is never easy, and often challenging for many, individuals must maneuver the challenges presented both by life as a stepfamily and the relationship between the stepparent-stepchild and performed two important task to maintain a healthy stepparent and stepchild relationship. First, the individual must develop an appropriately affectionate relationship with the children and second, he or she must establish themselves as legitimate parental authorities. (Ward,
Family structure is often a major contributor to children’s healthy development, using the TV show’s family as an example, their family structure established a complex stepfamily in the society; a biological mother of all the children and a stepfather of two children. Despite the coordinate family structure in both married and cohabiting parent families, studies have shown that children in cohabiting parent families or complex stepfamily may not receive the same social, emotional and institutional supports that children in married parent families receive. (Manning, 2015) During the first half of the show, Mike took Alana out for a father and daughter’s date, from that we could clearly see how Alana’s father cherishes spending time with her more than the other children as Alana is the only biological child of him in the family, he said “the kid is growing up too fast and she just needs to slow down a bit while I can spend time with her.” (Lexton, Rogan & Reddy, 2012); this may cause the other children in the family to sense the feeling of being left out and not equally loved by the stepparent. Being a stepparent is never easy, and often challenging for many, individuals must maneuver the challenges presented both by life as a stepfamily and the relationship between the stepparent-stepchild and performed two important task to maintain a healthy stepparent and stepchild relationship. First, the individual must develop an appropriately affectionate relationship with the children and second, he or she must establish themselves as legitimate parental authorities. (Ward,