I realize that the Bachelor family of shows can be a little controversial. certainly it doesn’t have the best track record for the couples it spits out a few times each year, however, there are obviously those who have survived the relationship gauntlet and lived to tell about it.

I would never sit around just watching these shows, nor any other show really – I always work or exercise with the shows in the background, but I do watch them and here is why:

if you’ve watched our love story you would probably be able to guess that I don’t really agree with the concept of the show, but I didn’t always feel completely unlike a contestant trying to win Mr. D’s heart (my mode of action was a lot more like sitting back waiting for God to finish writing the story than to actually compete, but hey, Mr. D needed a challenge for a change)

being fascinated by relationships and interactions in general, I find the Bachelor/ette to be an interesting study in human nature and relationship dynamics.

I enjoy trying to guess which parts of the show are real and which parts are set up, what kinds of leading questions they ask in the interviews to get the participants to say what they want them to say, which people are being their true selves, which ones have another agenda, what kinds of emotional problems and hangups they have, which things are edited unfairly, etc.

basically I’m analyzing the psychological states of everyone while I’m watching.

the dates, locations, and experiences from the Bachelor are obviously a lot more fairytale and a lot less real life, but the emotions and the way the contestants handle their emotions are real.

love can often feel like a bit of a war zone and I don’t feel like the way that it plays out on the Bachelor stage is completely untrue to what is often found in real life.

I’m pretty thankful, however, that it was God, not a team of reality show writers, who wrote our love story

had I started writing this earlier I would have waxed more wordy with my thoughts on all of it, but my deadline for myself is midnight, so this is all she wrote.

do you watch the Bachelor? why or why not? you can answer even if your name is Ileen