Amra Pajalic

True Beauty
The brain child of Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher the contestants believe they are competing in a beauty contest, when in actuality they are judged on secret challenges that test their ethics or inner beauty.

Lesson learnt: Don’t judge a book by its over. The people that come across as nice, are the ones that fail the secret challenges. Whereas Chelsea, who was just voted out, is insecure, loud and obnoxious-yet did not fail one of the secret challenges.

What I love: It’s so trashy and the reaction of the eliminated constants who find out the secret twist and then get to view the footage of their bad behaviour is the best reality tv pay off ever.

World’s Strictest Parents
Out of control teens are sent to another country to live for a week with strict parents in an effort to turn them around.

Lesson learnt: Teens need boundaries, affection and engaged parents. It’s amazing and heartbreaking to see the way the teens flower under the loving attention of their temporary parents. In most instances the teens go off the rails because their parents disengage and take their eyes off the ball.

What I love: The way the teens start out resentful at the rules imposed on them, yet when they are spoken to with respect and love they instantly change their tune.

Jon and Kate Plus 8
The documentary charting the challenges of parents raising 5 year old twins and one year old sextuplets makes riveting viewing. This is the first doco and since then the sextuplets are five years old and parents divorced, so watching this and knowing the end result was so sad.

Lesson learnt: Watching the interaction with Jon and Kate and knowing that currently they’re getting divorced you can see the seeds of their relationship breakdown. Jon is resentful because he didn’t want more children, she did and rode over him. She has to keep the house running like an army base with strict schedules and he resents her commanding him like a soldier.
Hubby and I have been debating having a second child and this show highlighted that both parents have to make the decision together, not one drag the other one along, because resentment can kill a relationship in a heartbeat.

What I love: I realise how lucky I am to have an easygoing little bebe and have no right to complain about the effort it takes to get out the door with one baby, because Kate manages it with six.