1100 Why Tell?

Thursday, February 1, 2007

A constant theme on the Maury show is paternity tests. Some of the stories I understand, some I don't. (No, I don't sit there avidly soaking up Maury stories. It's just noise in the background, what happens to come on when I'm too busy or too disinterested to change the channel.)

A common story is that a couple are in love and living together, maybe even married. They have an x-month/year-old child. The man is madly in love with the baby, absolute adoration. The baby loves its daddy. Everything was wonderful until three weeks ago, when the woman confessed to the man that back when they were temporarily separated for a few months, just before they had gotten back together, she had slept with another man, and the baby might or might not be his. The man usually declares that it doesn't matter to him, that this is his child no matter what.

Sometimes the paternity test goes one way, sometimes another, sometimes the relationship survives, sometimes it dies, whatever.

What I don't understand is why the woman said anything at all! Why didn't she just leave it alone? Telling this secret has the potential to disrupt a minimum of four lives. Not telling preserves a happy family. Ok, it's a secret, and keeping secrets can be hard, but some secrets are meant to be kept.

The show never asks why she told. For me, that's the most interesting part.

P.S. - Back in the 80s, before DNA paternity tests were common, I read somewhere that something like one in five babies is not fathered by the man whose name is on the birth certificate. I wonder if that number has been updated.
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