Want a lesson on what NOT to do in a hot tub? Just watch reality TV

August 14, 2018 – Okay…I’ll confess: I have a weak spot for Bravo reality TV. I don’t have much time for TV these days, which is why my DVR is unmercifully full much of the time. If I just need something wacky for no-thinking escape, it tends to be to turn on Bravo.

Tonight, I happened to have one of the recent episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County on, and holy moley! Talk about an in-your-face tutorial of all the things you can do WRONG in a hot tub in one episode! I was sitting at home just blown away by the stupidity on display.

Three of the ladies had gone to Mexico for a getaway that involved way too much drinking. (I think when you get to a shot count of 15 on how many you drank the previous night and THEN lose count, there’s a problem, Houston.) The previous night of mucho shots was the night the hot tub was featured. In less than 20 minutes, I witnessed an easy checklist of really bad hot tub behavior:

• Soaking in a hot tub with that much alcohol in your system and adding hot water soaking to the mix without WATER or something non-alcoholic to hydrate with was no-no #1.
• Also: not the best idea to be soaking in a hot tub inebriated to that degree alone.
• Jumping out of the hot tub stark naked without first toweling off a bit and proceeding to trod wet feet over slick surfaces that ends up with a slip and falling flat on your bum, potentially injuring your back, tailbone, neck? The list could be long here with the injuries you could sustain.
• Multiple times the ladies were shown stepping into the hot tub from an unsafe height. You should get in the habit of sitting on the lip of the shell of the tub, then swinging your legs over into the tub, to be sure you don’t accidentally slip and take a dive. Not once was this how they entered the tub.
• A hot tub is designed with seating that is sculpted—and HARD. Jumping into a hot tub with those hard, curved surfaces underwater is just ridiculously poor judgement. And, in this case—after showing Tamra do this TWICE, it resulted in her going to the emergency room to discover she had broken her foot!

I have to say it was just so incredibly maddening for this to all be shown in one episode. I imagine many people at home found it entertaining and humorous, but for me it was so irresponsible and wrong to depict so many poor decisions made with hot tub soaking and alcohol.

It’s not high entertainment, but I was alarmed at the lack of regard for personal safety.

Please, folks: soak responsibly! It was a definite “Shame on Bravo!” moment for me.