When I first learned of this new TLC show, I had high hopes it would be a good mix of entertainment and constructive conversation about the challenges moms today face when making the so-called "choice" between paid work and home work. Soccer Mom premiered a few weeks ago on Monday nights at 10pm, following the wildly entertaining Jon & Kate Plus 8. This week Soccer Mom moved to Sunday nights at 8pm in hopes of finding an audience.

I’ve watched three episodes of this “reality” fantasy show and have mixed feelings about it. Host Tracey Gold (of Growing Pains fame) is a pregnant working mom herself, which should make her platitudes (“I know how this feels” ) seem more genuine. But somehow, when she’s showing moms video of what’s happening at home while they are at work, it feels completely uncomfortable. And downright mean.

The premise of the show is to take stay-at-home moms out of the house and drop them back into the careers they left to raise their children. In the three episodes I have watched, one mom was a fashion designer, one was a chef, and one had been enrolled in the police academy. All are offered a chance to secretly work for a week. “Your families can never know what you are doing this week,” host Tracey tells them. Meanwhile Dad is left to his own devices, managing the chaos at home with little more than mom’s lists and instruction sheets.

The dads offer the only real comic relief in a show that’s otherwise ridden with angst. Many of these moms are struggling with their own identities and that’s what the show seeks to help them rediscover. Are they still the talented designer, chef, or able-bodied officer they once were?

But watching the show is excruciating at times. I had to turn off the episode of Katie the chef and return to it later when I was in a better frame of mind. Her boss at the elite restaurant where she was dropped was such an arrogant jerk that I was feeling stressed just watching him make demands of her. I go to work four days a week and some days are just awful. I don’t need to watch someone else’s bad workday play out before I go to bed.

What saves the show are the tearful moments when the moms talk to camera about their experiences at work. Many of them reported feeling invigorated, challenged, and confident about their skills and talents. I wanted to yell at the screen “You GO Girl! You've still got it!”

Then Tracey surprises the mom with the chance of a lifetime: a full-time job. Of course, she needs an answer in two hours. And oh yeah, Mom, you have to start on Monday. That’s where the reality ends and the fantasy really begins.