What is Wrong With This Picture?

Yes, that is a large truck driving next to Teresa Giudice. Yes, that is Teresa driving to her book-signing, on a very busy interstate highway. Yes, she is talking on her blinged-out cell-phone, in what was described as a snowstorm, with deteriorating road conditions..........and yes, driving while talking, or texting on a phone, in New Jersey, is against the law.
New Jersey’s major cell phone law went into effect on March 1, 2008 (link here).

• It is a primary offense for a motorist to talk or text message with a hand-held wireless telephone or electronic communication device while driving.

• Use of a hand-held wireless telephone or electronic communication device includes, but is not limited to:
  

  • Talking or listening to another person.
  • Text messaging or sending an electronic message. (copied NJ cell-phone law)

  LEGAL BLOG (link here)  tells why driving while using a cell-phone is second only to drunk-driving, when  it comes to being dangerous. So, even-if using a cell is allowed in some states still, it is almost never considered safe for yourself, the occupants of your vehicle, or the other people using the road.
  Is Teresa the only Real Housewife of Bravo that I've noticed, who uses her cell while driving? Unfortunately no. In particular, *The Real Housewives of Miami have also been taped while doing this dangerous activity but I was informed that it was legal in Florida at that time. (although just as dangerous).
   *(it was reported last weekend that one of the children of the Miami cast was involved in a serious car-accident. I do not know the cause)
  New Jersey actually has a "distracted driving" law, which in my opinion would also include being taped for reality television while driving. I'm not trying to get Teresa in trouble with the NJ Department of Motor Vehicles, but I am asking that she please stop driving while using her phone, and that Bravo stops taping and airing these scenes.
  
  You can find much more information about the real danger of using a cell while driving by using the key-phrase, "Hang-up and Drive". Here are just a couple facts posted on Drive and Stay Alive dot com:
  
  
  "* The California Highway Patrol (CHP) attributed 4699 accidents, 2786 injuries, and 31 deaths resulting from those wrecks to distracted driving caused by people yakking on their phones. (This was for a nine-month period in 2001; the CHP estimates the total for the full year to be closer to 6000 crashes.)
  
  
  * The Harvard University Center for Risk Analysis estimates that there are as many as 1.5 million crashes annually in the United States leading to 560,000 injuries and 2600 deaths "due to phone use in moving vehicles." (Driveandstayalive.com link here)

The screen-capture above is from The Real Housewives of New Jersey episode 15, Season 3, titled, Black as Ink. In this episode, and on other episodes this season, Joe Giudice hasn't been looking too good. If Bravo has a "drunk-edit", like the fabled, "Bitch-edit", Joe is "it" this season.
Since the surprising suicide of Russel Armstrong on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, more attention and concern has been given to the risks of being the husband of a Real Housewife, and if any husband has given reason for concern, Joe Giudice would also be, "it".
And that, in my opinion, is what is seriously wrong with this picture. Teresa and Joe Giudice  have four young children who need BOTH of their parents. Teresa can claim ignorance of her husband's business-dealings and get-away with it. But to put herself at risk when her other-half is deteriorating before everyone's eyes, (including the children sadly), is pathetic and careless.
Hopefully, Joe Giudice will man-up, and pull himself together, but until that happens those children need at least one parent who can act like a responsible adult. We don't want to see any more Real Housewife children lose their parents, but right now what we have been seeing for the Giudice children is some really bad parenting.
This past episode, and the next one coming-up, makes me wonder if the Giudice kids have been traumatized by the violence and drama that we have witnessed this season. Just like Caroline Manzo related a story of her son Albie as a youngster asking her to please wear a seat-belt, children do worry about the safety of their parents. The Giudice kids are being given way too much to worry-about. It can and should be prevented.
Many people are writing-off Joe Giudice as a lost-cause, or minimally, in need of treatment for his behavior and drinking. In a perfect world, both parents share the responsibility of taking-care of the children and themselves. In reality, even in two-parent families sometimes, not everyone acts like the grown-up that their children need them to be.
Right now, or when this episode was taped, Teresa does/did not have the luxury to take unnecessary risks with her own safety. Its not safe to use a cell-phone while driving, and Teresa cannot take the chance that both of her children's parents are severely impaired, or worse.
Speaking-of the children of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, I have to agree-with Melissa about one thing this season and that is that scenes of the Giudice and Gorga cousins getting together could have been a really cute thing for everyone to enjoy.
I know that we need our drama, but the darkness of Season three, has been darker-than anything that Danielle Staub brought to the party. In my opinion, the entire season has been as "Black as Ink"--not just this one episode.
If the husbands could have stayed-out of the family-feuding, I think that could have even been made silly and entertaining while still bringing some drama and tension. I'm pretty-much hating what Bravo has chosen to show us this season. It makes the first two seasons look-like the, "light-hearted" Real Housewives of New Jersey, that they promised us we would have if only Danielle would disappear.
I don't know what the diving laws in Atlanta are, but I can only hope that somewhere down-South, The Real Housewives of Atlanta are driving safely and taping more high-heeled Housewife kookiness, so that the viewers don't feel like they've been hit by a truck after watching.

About Ashley...



http://www.flickr.com/photos/minneapolisorg/2505320081/sizes/l/in/photostream/

  A lot of us are thinking exactly what they want us to think. "Ungrateful" "Bratty"...
So Ashley didn't have any gifts? First of all, gifts are not mandatory. (period). Presents are always a nice thing to receive, and give, but when they become anything other than that-they're just not.
Secondly, here's a quote from Jaquelin's blog where she mentions that Ashley usually spends Christmas with her other dad's family:

"Ashley finally made it to a holiday with us. She was unable to go to Texas this year to see her dad and family there because of reasons I can't remember, so we got the pleasure of her gracing us with her presence this year. I was happy to have her join us. I love that her little brothers could be with their big sister too."(-http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-jersey/season-3/blogs/jacqueline-laurita/step-away-from-the-pot?page=0,2)

So, for all we know there was something unexpected that kept Ashley from going where she usually goes for the holiday and she wasn't used to celebrating and gift-giving on Christmas with this side of her family. And maybe she just didn't have a chance to scramble-up some gifts.
"Ungrateful" is treating a healthy living young daughter like crap in my opinion! How many families have lost their children and would give anything just to have them be there at holiday time?
Third of all, and I really hate to say this, but if Ashley hadn't pulled Danielle's hair, IF Jacqueline and Danielle had stayed friends,  I'm pretty sure that out of everyone, Danielle would have set Jacqueline straight about Caroline's influence.
The fact that Chris, Ashley's step-dad, has invested financially in Albie and Christopher's business even burns me up more here because of the way that Caroline has manipulated Ashley's image. So Chris bought Ashley a car? He bought Caroline's sons, his nephews, a J-O-B!
And yes, that was Caroline with her raised-eyebrows and a few things to say when Chris bought Ashley her first car, (the second one doesn't even count in my mind. Buying someone a car-payment book isn't the same.) HOW DARE SHE!
Chris was right when he said that his first instinct was to tell "people" to "mind their own business".
At this point, Ashley really does need a little bit of help. Not the, "swift kick in the back of the pants"-help that Caroline has insinuated and Jacqueline and critics have lapped-up. No, she desperately needs some self-esteem help. She's not the smartest cookie in the jar, but at her age, who is? But her growth and esteem has been stunted further by the evil influence and manipulations of Caroline.
When I saw Teresa's blog last week where she blabbed that Caroline was the engineer of the "Hate-Train":

"I do think it's funny that she talks about not getting on the "hate train" because I remember when it came to Danielle, she not only got on the hate train, she built it, fueled it and was the Hate Train Engineer."(-Teresa's blog)

 http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-jersey/season-3/blogs/teresa-giudice/not-my-thing?page=0,6

So even Teresa can see how Caroline operates. And maybe Caroline had good reasons for keeping sleazy, slutty Danielle away from her family. But it does prove how manipulative Caroline is doesn't it?
Why she has decided that putting Ashley down is somehow in her interest, I don't know that either. And Caroline doesn't even have to do it herself! Nope-just like with Danielle, a raised-eyebrow or snarky comment dropped, and people do what they think she wants them to do.
Caroline knows better than embarrassing or putting her own children down to other people. She knows better than doing that to anyone! That's why she has perfected the art of getting other people to do it for her.
This whole "intervention" with Ashley is all for Caroline and public opinion's benefit in my opinion.
So they all swoop-in and tell her what a loser she is and of course she, "says the wrong thing". I put that in quotes because she was set-up to, "say the wrong thing".
Didn't we all just watch last year as Jacqueline warned Ashley NOT to get pregnant? Ashley won't truly be grown-up until she realizes that that's her own business. But when Jaquelin became so insulted, Ashley was only telling her that she had specifically taken her advice to prevent pregnancy.
It seems that Ashley is always on-the-verge of tears and you can hear it in her voice. I call it a "constipated"-voice. Kind-of whiny, and then it just escalates to crying. Is this the result of being on a reality show where you only earn a paycheck for the drama that you can create? A "regular" actress, would be trained, and would have a script to work-with to bring-on the tears. But Ashley's working with what she has.
So it looks like Ashley has decided to take her Bravo-paycheck and move to Beverly. I say, Good for her!
Yes, its too far away from her family, but they have not treated her right. Jaquilene wants to talk about "respect", well maybe she should look at how Caroline, and Kathy, and even the mothers of younger children like Teresa on her show treat their children.  They treat their children respectfully and Jaquieline does not treat Ashley like that.
She treats her like a bratty little teenager and she uses money to try and control her. Well I hope that once Ashley is settled in California that Jaquilene and Chris continue to financially support Ashley when she needs it, (after-all they financially support their nephews, Caroline's kids for God's sake!), and I hope that she doesn't fall into the trap of partying too much when she's on her own.

If all her mom could get into Ashley's head as-far as advice was, "don't get pregnant", then she will have to learn a few things the hard-way, or learn-by-doing. Maybe she'll get lucky like Bethenny and get a job being an aupair? She has experience with young children and I bet her mom is going to miss having a live-in baby-sitter. And I sure don't blame her for telling her mom, "no" when her mom asks her to babysit. She does have that right, just like young people, (and adults), have the right to decide if they want to give gifts or not. She may have to learn how to tell people not to give her any gifts if they expect something in return, but she shouldn't be publicly humiliated for her mistakes like she has been.

She doesn't have money for the beauty-school that she wants to go to and if her parents won't pay she can apply for financial-aid and grants and scholarships and loans just like everybody else does. Too bad that she already missed the deadline for this year for that, but I'm going to make a point to remind her next year.

I hope that while Ashley is gone that her mom figures-out what she's been doing wrong so that they can have a good mother-daughter relationship. Yes Ashley is half-baked and immature but if she can keep herself safe and grow-up a little, she really is not a bad kid from what we've seen on TV.

She really does need to drop the "bratty kid" image and demand respect by her own behavior and accomplishments, so I hope that the world treats her nice in LA if she goes there, and if not, I hope that her famliy treats her better either way. She might be too mopey to turn the world on with her smile, but she does wear a beret......she might just make it after all!