The recent Denver Balloon Boy story that has been making international news has made me wonder, what in the world are these parents thinking.
It is one thing to see what people will go through to get their five minutes of fame, but it’s quite another issue when they start dragging their kids into it, now we are in a whole different ball game.
Most people have heard the story. A Denver mom and dad ask their 6 –year-old son to hide in their home while their home made, make shift, silver- hot-air -looking balloon is flying in the air. 
They had told their other son to lie to authorities to say that he thinks he saw the 6-year-old climb into the balloon.
The parents then call the authorities to tell them they are worried that their 6 year old is in the balloon. Oh, but it was then found out later that before the parents had called 911, they called a Reality TV Show.
Thousands of dollars and hearts-worried-around-the world hours later they find the balloon but not the boy.
Then all of a sudden miraculously, they find the boy hiding in the family’s house.
When the 6 year old boy, whose name is Falcon, was interviewed by CNN television and asked why he hid in his house, the boy answered honestly toward his father “You had said we did this for a show.”
Woops. Don’t you just love 6-year-olds. They are as pure and honest and innocent as can be imagined and the kid just does not get this whole plot.
The plot it turns out that the parents had of trying get rich and famous by being reality TV stars.
I hate reality TV.
Honestly, I am a story teller and I love sharing real life stories with people but when it becomes a place where people exploit their families for fame, I draw the line.
Think Octo-mom and Kate Plus 8, whatever that show is now called (we do not have cable and I have never seen it before but how can you miss it).
When their five minutes of fame are up and their kids are in ruins, emotionally for sure, then what. What values are parents teaching their children.
In the case of the Balloon Boy, I think, wow, these parents are asking their son to lie. To tell a lie. One of the basic rules of parenting is to teach your children to be truthful and here they are going against the very grain of children. It really is built into children I believe by God to have a sense of right and wrong. That is what I read in Romans. And these parents told their son to go against that rule.
Let us say they got away with this and years later the family is dealing with an issue and they tell Falcon, “Tell the truth” and Falcon says, “Why should I?”
The parents of Falcon are facing criminal charges and the mom has now come forward to admit the entire Balloon Boy incident was a hoax.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091023/ap_on_re_us/us_balloon_boy_search
Looks like the family will be getting their five minutes of fame. The parents may end up with jail time. Looks like they may be behind bars, instead of behind the camera.
The father especially strikes me as a …bonehead. You know I wanted to use a different word, but just imbue “bonehead” with the attributes of someone called something stronger, and we’ll call it good. You are 100% right that they were wrong to encourage their kids to lie.
I got a kick out of this song about the incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiN6oW9Ct1c The audio is hard to hear, but the lyrics are printed by the poster’s name.