I was unable to write about Episode 5 of the Real Housewives of New Jersey yesterday because I’m trying for a level of objectivity here, but DAMN.
Episode 5 was a perfect example of why children should be kept off these shows. What has happened on the message boards and twitter was much worse than the Lauri Waring/ Josh Waring/ George Peterson debacle after Season 1 of the Real Housewives of Orange County, when message boards were forced to change the way they do business because of the criticisms leveled at underage children. Because of the level of insanity targeting her children, Gina Peterson, George’s ex-wife, would not let her minor children be shown on Season 3, and has suffered for it every since.
I taught elementary school for 30 years. In that time, I’ve seen the way children and their relationships to adults has changed. Not touting myself as an expert, but I’ve seen plenty, especially since the advent of Facebook and Twitter.
It was wrong of Caroline Manzo and Jacqueline Laurita to corner an upset Gia Giudice like that, instead of just leaving her alone. The 16 year old girl temper tantrum of yesterday is the 11 year old tantrum of today. How dare they not get the girl’s mother and leave that child alone?
We truly get that Caroline Manzo hates Teresa Giudice because her precious “children” were held by police in Punta Cana during a brawl in January 2011. The filming of Episode 5 was late June/ early July, 2011, just to keep things in perspective.
But Teresa’s kids should be off limits … Caroline, along with the passive-aggressive Jacqueline Laurita, basically ganged up on a little girl … after the games, they assumed what was going on with Gia, without asking. In every episode , beginning with the Season 3 reunion, Caroline stated she was never really friends with Teresa. So, doesn’t that mean you leave the child of your enemy alone, and go get her mother, as requested? Did Caroline know Teresa had been slated for Celebrity Apprentice by this time, not her or her boring ass Albie? HMMM…….
CAROLINE NEVER CONSIDERED FOR CELEBRITY APPRENTICE
Gia should not have sassed Caroline and Jacqueline. Children as savvy as Gia do know, from years of handling non-evolved grandparents, a drunken stupid father, teachers, an absent mother and three sisters, that sometimes you don’t say anything. But she knows they hate her mother, so even though she can’t articulate it, she knew they had an agenda.
Jacqueline and the book? No wonder Ashley Holmes has turned out like she has. By the way, rumor has it she is back in Las Vegas with her relatives, having run out of money in Los Angeles.
Teresa comes in and Caroline lies and says “I’m telling her you are having fun with Uncle Joe “ Then when Gia tells the truth, she lies again, by saying no one was reprimanding her. Caroline then tells Teresa she said “let’s go out on the deck and get Mommy” That was a lie.
The jury is still out on Teresa’s kids but spare me from either Caroline or Jacqueline giving parental advice given the loathsome specimens they have spawned. Prince Albie Manzo, Chris Manzo and Lauren Manzo are just lazy famewhores living on Bravo TV’s dime. And Ashley Holmes? Please.
Why call out Caroline? Because she doesn’t explain, she pontificates. In the meantime:
- Boys are perfect no matter how they look, but girls must be thin? Greggy Bennett’s only role on the show is to pick on Lauren.
- Caroline and her revisionist history. Before her lap-band surgery between Season 2 and 3, Caroline was quite over-weight for her height.
DINA MANZO’S WEDDING…check out Caroline’s weight
Why are so many so-called adults calling out Gia personally, attacking an 11 year old who has no choice ? Too vicious for me, but predictable. Not saying Teresa doesn’t share blame, Gia should not be on twitter.
The largest share of the blame goes to Bravo TV and Andy Cohen. They know the harm caused by featuring minor children on screen, do they care? Hell to the no. They inadvertently attacked Gia on Watch What Happens, Live! with that stupid poll.
Does this season just get uglier and uglier? Looks like it. I stopped watching and blogging about Basketball Wives after Season 1, the same could happen here.
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I don’t care if you are team Teresa, Melissa, or Caroline. I fault bravo too for letting this air. I am sure they only showed the worst parts, I think Caroline an Jac were looking for airtime. This show is a trainwreck bravo clean house starting with Andy Cohen, the we hate Teresa storyline is old…fire all their skanny butts.
I would have to watch it again, but I beleive that Carline DID early on state that she was going to go get Gia’s mother.
Then the whole scene went from trying to calm her down to trying get her to behave. I am also in the camp that I dont think that what Caroline and jac did was really that bad. Although at some point (around the book), for jac it turned into unresolved issues she has with Ashley. oof!
But Teresa HAS to get her head out of her butt and start dealing with the issues at hand and STOP trying to deal with things the Scarlett O’Hara way (think about it tomorrow). All her girls are a mess and in dire need of real guidance and discipline. And Gia has all the added of shouldering all the responsibility for caretaking when mommy is making money and daddy doesnt do anything.
If Gia isnt given some structure, discipline, stability and mass amounts of therapy ASAP, she is going to end up far worse than Ashley. Caroline was correct when she said that Teresa is teaching her that any time she is hurt or upset it automatically means that she is not in the wrong. Not a good road.
Note that Tre kept her mouth SHUT while on CA because she KNEW she was clearly out of her league. The fancy clothes she wore was her way of trying to pass.
I agree with Lucy Goosy! I don’t feel it was at all a “gang up” Tre should NOT allow those bratty kids to be on tv. Gia really showed her self on that episode. I know she is only 10 but I have a niece 11 and she would NEVER EVER speak to adults like that. If she wanted her daddy, like Gia wanted her mommy, she would have gotten up and gone outside to get him. Why didn’t Gia do that??? again, Bravo editing???? Yes I think so. Why would Tre allow the “bra talk” to be filmed. Gia is going to be teased so badly by her friends and enemies at school for that. I don’t care if she did want to do it. Someone has to be an adult, and it is obvious that Tre or Joe can do that. Tre needs to take those kids off the show and do it yesterday. That little Mailiani (?sp) is a total bully. God help them girls….
ok ritas, i’m gonna educate y’all
reasoning with a 10 year old.—-aparently everyone outside nj know you can’t do that. woooooooow
jac- always the pease keeper, bless you dearie.
teresa- she maybe ditzy or crazy or what ever you haters wanna call her. at least when the tough get going, she trys to cope her way and get busy.
dear kathy ohboy……how to say this hon…..change your eye liner!!! please!!!!!!!!
BROWN, NOT BLACK and only 2 maximum before dark. sorry it had to be said.
melissa is a shit starter, ATTENTION WHORE and a wanna be. opps forgot back stabber. myoFb.
caroline, i really like you during season 1 and 2. i thought there is the voice of reason and fine character. when your friends go through tough stuff and maybe even lash out at the wrong people, there you are caroline, throwing them under the bus. SEE U Next Tuesday!!!
Caroline and Jac are the last people that should step in to parent someone else’s children –their kids are pathetic, and, I am not a Teresa fan nor a Melissa fan! I really can’t stand any of them except Kathy and Rosie! Shame on ALL involved that day, Teresa, quit putting your kids in awkward circumstances on a reality show! School peers will be relentless!! That is Teresa’s fault! As far as Bravo….they certainly didn’t respect a dead man or his children/family who filmed for Bravo, what makes anyone think they respect the ramifications of their greed for $ & ratings on children!! I still believe Bravo will somehow be held accountable for fronting Taylor’s lies all last season..Karma Bravo Slime, KARMA!
What? Caroline had lap band surgery? I noticed she and her hubby have gained again. She is such a hypocrit, guilty of everything she acuses Teresa of.
I don’t care if you were the mother Theresa of parenting, DO NOT PARENT MY F N KID…DO NOT. I learned that the hard way, a friend’s child was crying and throwing a tantrum, and i was about to raise my voice at him, and friend said *made a stop hand gesture* and said JD PLEASE STOP…and i KNEW that was my cue to leave the situation. Bozo the REDHAIRCLOWN and Passive Aqgressive Jackie should have NEVER scold that child like that, if she was crying for her mother, let her or get her FREAKING mother…NO ONE SHOULD TAKE PARENTING ADVICE FROM THE LAURITAS/MANZOS….unless you want spoiled brats and demanding assholes….At least The Giudices children have a chance, but Manzos and Lauritas are already F UP
I’m sure I’ll get jumped on for this, but I don’t respond to people’s comments anyway so I’ll just say what I want to about this. While not a Caroline fan at all, she has annoyed me since Season 1, I don’t think what she or Jac did was terrible. Gia is only ten, but she clearly has some lessons to learn when it comes to respecting adults. It’s obvious she doesn’t know her place and and that she needs be respectful in someone else’s home, regardless of how she feels about them. That said, she is a kid, and a not very well brought up kid at that. I do believe she is a product of her environment that way. If Teresa is going to be so touchy about people calling out her child’s behavior, she needs to guide and manage her better. I don’t feel Jac or even Caroline was out of line on this, but apparently I’m in the minority. I have sympathy toward Gia–I see serious anger and agression in all of Teresa’s kids, really. It does make you wonder what goes on in their life off camera. However, her behavior was inappropriate. I would love to not see anymore kids on these shows anyway. I don’t think it’s good for them, and frankly they are boring most of the time anyway. I think kids should be allowed to just be kids and not have their lives exposed just because their parents are famewhores.
I agree with you, Lucy. I heard some of the backlash before I watched and when I saw the show I didn’t see the big deal.
Your opinion is always welcome here, Lucy
I agree. I don’t see anything wrong with the book or any of it. It’s a blessing to have more than your parents teach you lessons – especially about bad behavior. I had more than my mom, and I thank them all to this day. Unfortunately for Teresa, Gia’s an angel compared to that Milania. Good Lord! As for the kids on tv, I also agree. The little ones shouldn’t be on because, 1. It’s not good for them, 2. It’s boring and 3. We all become armchair parents.
Grammy, Andy read a twitter of Jacs that she tweeted just as the show was ending, most people talking to her on twitter were telling her she did nothing wrong..
I personally think no one on the show last night covered themself in glory except for maybe Kathy Wakile, who just calmly got on the floor with Gia and told her everything was going to be ok..
At least Jac copped to feeling bad and felt she crossed a line, Caroline didnt, and Teresa doesnt seem to feel there is anything wrong with involving her 10 year old in adult problems (part of why gia melted down)..
While there’s plenty of blame to go around in this circumstance I agree with you that:
“…The largest share of the blame goes to Bravo TV and Andy Cohen…”
You are right on the money. Can Gia be bratty at times? Sure. That is no excuse for how Caroline and Jac acted. Those two are far from being ideal parents. They totally ganged up on Gia out of jealousy or dislike of Teresa.
I cannot stand Greggy Bennett. He is so pointless. I wish he and the biring, dorky Manzo clan would leave the show.
Jac was acting like a teenager who was excited to finally have enough authority to boss around a 10 year old.
Since WE all know the crap Gia has seen and heard and is currently dealing with, this “acting out” was tame, and Jac and Caroline know even more than we do–they should be way more sympathetic to what’s going in that little girl’s life. My heart goes out to Gia, and I really worry about what she deals with when she goes to school after episodes like this air.
ASHLEE is a joke, and I can say that because she’s a 21 year old woman, not a child. She wrote a blog post updating everyone about her life, and it’s as hysterically ridiculous as Ashlee/Ashley herself. She assures us that she has finally grown up…but it didn’t happen until 6 months ago. Sure it did. She also claims that her unpaid blogging internship turned into a paying job…I doubt that, especially since she NEVER blogs and when she does, she puts about 2 minutes of thought/effort into her post.
It boggles my mind that the poll showed they didn’t do wrong in harassing that child. I cannot believe the poll was real., especially since Andy read an email from Jacq. halfway thru the show where she said she thanked so many people for supporting her but she felt bad about it. How did she know how many people supported her. Andy looked confused when he read it, like “uh oh”. You will never convince me that poll wasn’t rigged.
Very well said. I can’t believe the nerve of Caroline! She basically shamed Gia and made the child even more upset. If Caroline and Teresa “were never friends” Caroline has absolutely no right to discipline Teresa’s daughter.
Instead of Wendy Williams insinuating there is an icenstuous relationship between Joe Gorga and Teresa, she should focus on Caroline’s unhealthy adoration of her sons.
FYI – Shaming and guilt are the main tenant of discipline and coercion with Italians. Italians are masters at it. The older they are (and closer to the old country), the more it is used. What was on this ep was nothing.
I second that!….Caroline practically slit Danielle (the crazy a$$) Staub’s throat in season 2 for attacking Caroline’s children and Ashley, but its perfectly ok for her to attack an 11 yr. old little girl who is seriously going through a rough time with all of her parents crap and starting puberty in front of cameras. at least when Danielle attacked Carolines children they were “GROWN” children as she states. so compared to Caroline I have to say that Danielle comes off looking like a SAINT LOL….now who is the thug?!
Yes Tiffany, these asses make Danielle Staub look good!!!
SO well said, Sharon! I agree with every single word!