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'Tis the Season Festival
Local 'Wife Swap' mom:'I wasn't expecting the deer urine.'
Monday, February 26, 2007
In the weeks leading up to the debut of ABC's Wife Swap in 2004, some Americans were understandably confused: It's one thing for respectable moms and dads to hop on the Internet at the witching hour as hot_couple23452, but to broadcast it into prime-time living rooms nationwide, with the kids still awake, is something else entirely.
As it turns out, Wife Swap combines interactive adult home-ec with a concept similar to a foreign-exchange student program, in which wives from two diverse households change hands and experience severe culture shock in terms of child discipline, home maintenance and work ethics.
Extras
Now in its third season, Wife Swap will, this week, welcome a Springboro family — the Hamiltons — on the basis that Tim, 47, and Angie, 36, pamper their 14-year-old daughter, Chasity, giving her everything she wants and refusing to discipline her. Angie is sent to live with the Lowes, a workaholic Pennsylvania family that spends virtually no family time together, while Anita Lowe comes to Springboro and is shocked that mere daughter-hood yields such astounding dividends.
Besides working full-time jobs, the Lowes have a lucrative side business bottling deer urine for hunters (who use it as a lure). Whereas in her former life, Angie ran a tight household with impeccable standards of cleanliness, in the Lowe house Angie was roused at 2:30 a.m. to prepare her husband's meal and chariot before venturing back inside for the first round of urine collection and storage.
Meanwhile, back in Springboro, Anita wasted little time in announcing to Chasity that excessive luxury is unhealthy, that it was time for to start earning her keep, and that her real mother wasn't the only one about to become intimately acquainted with deer pee.
We spoke to Angie Hamilton to see just what Wife Swap was like.
Q&A with Angie
Q Was your experience on Wife Swap about what you expected, or were there a lot of surprises?
A It was more surprising. You don't know anything about the (other) family, not even what town you're going to. I wasn't expecting the deer urine (collection). I didn't know people did that. I met a lot of good people, but it's not how I'd want to live on a day-to-day basis.
Q Who decided you were entertaining and/or dysfunctional enough to be on Wife Swap in the first place?
A We watched the show, not every week, but probably every other week. My daughter wanted me to apply. She just thought I'd be great at it. She thought I'd bond well with (another family's) kids, because we're more like best friends than mother and daughter.
Q What about your adjustments with the Lowe family?
A I wasn't a very happy camper getting up in the middle of the night to scrape some guy's car off, especially when he's already up, and then to have to pack his lunch and hand him his bath towel — it was hideous. I didn't even have words to describe it.
Q How did it compare to your daily schedule at home?
A I like my sleep. I do get up at 6 a.m. to take Chasity to school. She doesn't ride the bus. Then I would go to work, until it's time to pick her up. Then I take her to basketball, and I might go back to work after that, etc. Chasity works at our business, too, and she enjoys it. We just haven't taught her really well about money. We're working on that.
Q What else did you learn about yourself?
A That I'm very demanding at home. I scrub on my hands and knees; I don't do mops because I don't think they pick up everything. Tim does a lot, too. If I'm up, he's up, and he wasn't getting any time to do the things he enjoys. That was a big wake-up call for me.
Q It doesn't seem like class plays a big part on that show, where one family that's pretty well-off is paired with a family that's struggling or more working-class. Was that the case here?
A Not so much. We (ourselves and the Lowes) work full time. Both of us own family businesses. The differences were more in how we lived. We like to spend; they like to save. And standards of cleanliness are different. When I first walked in, the smell of deer urine almost knocked me over.
Contact this writer at epple@fuse.net.
How to watch
What: Episode 1 of the new 'Wife Swap' season, starring Springboro's Hamilton family.
When: Today from 8 to 9 p.m.
Where: ABC, channels 9 and 22.
