Newlywed, Nearly Dead?

What in the world was that? It was 10:30 and Dan had fallen asleep and like most nights, I'm always intrigued by what's on HGTV -- Nothing intriguing, so I flipped to the Fine Living channel -- So much for fine living --

There it was... Newlywed, Nearly Dead? -- It caught my attention simply because I am a Newlywed and secondly, I'm writing this blog -- I thought it might give me some good material and it did in such a way I never thought it would --

They introduced him as "an expert Newlywed counselor" -- I have no clue what his name is, but that is insignificant because he was an expert, right? The Newlywed couple were Matt and Abby -- Matt, a supposedly unaffectionate and angry groom and Abby a Hurricane in the mornings and sloppy -- As a recent graduate with my Master's in Counseling, I thought to myself, Ohh... I have some fun ideas for what they could do, I'm almost embarrassed to tell you what I saw --

The expert introduced the "squawking chicken" as a resolution to Matt's unaffectionate self -- He would wear it around his neck and make sure to hug Abby twice a day -- The chicken would squawk and make them laugh and this would create a 'funness' about affection so Matt would be more open to it -- To help Abby with her morning terror episodes, Matt was instructed to play a "Good Morning Song" and Abby had to sing along until she was in a good mood -- Thai Chi was assigned to Matt to help calm his anger and Abby was giving "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" cards to help motivate her to clean -- You could tell throughout the show Matt and Abby felt stupid, but clearly felt they had to do it because they were on TV --

As I sat appalled that the Fine Living station was not only airing this show, but declaring this man an EXPERT on Newlyweds, it hit me that they were reducing the resolution of marriage problems to Squawking Chickens and Thumb Cards -- It hurt my heart -- I know there are real people with real stuff going on within their marriages and they want real help -- While I realize it is supposed to bring a bit of humor to situations that can be seemingly drowning, please tell me this isn't what our society considers resolving true marriage issues...

Newlywed, nearly dead? They will be if they continue to listen to advice like that -- What do you think?