Reality TV: Helping kill off another family

It seems that Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member, Danielle Staub, may have more explaining to do with her children about her past than she previously wanted to.

On Tuesday, The Smoking Gun website published a 26 page federal document that detailed her sordid past.

When arrested in a plot that involved kidnapping a man's son for $25,000 in a cocaine deal gone bad, she went by the name of Beverly Ann Merrill. She also had an alias she went by known as Angela Minelli. Working this plot along with Daniel Aguilar, whom she met while working for an escort service, "threatened injury or death" to the son whom they had kidnapped, "was blamed by Merrill and Aguilar for the botched drug deal, which cost them a kilo of cocaine worth about $24,000," according to the papers.

When they were arrested, "agents discovered six kilos of cocaine and about $16,000 in cash."

Staub "was charged with eight felonies, including extortion, cocaine possession and narcotics conspiracy."

My mother was married before she married my father. I was never told about this but being the snoopy child I was, I sniffed out the truth. It has been said that curiosity killed the cat but I have always been able to tell when something seems a little "off." Ask my husband.

Should Danielle Staub not have thought more intently about her involvement joinging a show were the media could seek out her past and exploit her and her family?

Should all who decide to join a reality show be more cautious in their decisions to do this?

Did your parents mess up your view of relationships?

My mother and father divorced when I was eight. After living without my parents married to one another, I decided I didn't have to get married either. Why when the outcome can be so messy?

Years went by and then one day I met a man and we moved in with one another. We had a daughter. Such a cute little thing but had some serious stomach issues as a baby... whew. We shared the responsibilities with each other. He took out the trash while I cooked. I cleaned the bathrooms and he cleaned the litter box. We took turns changing diapers and giving baths. Everything was perfect or so I thought. It all happened so fast. I never saw it coming.

He asked me to marry him.

What? I asked. I thought we were happy?All this time I had been avoiding this question and here it was. What was I to do? I loved him, yes. I wanted to spend my time with him, we have a blast together. I wanted to lie down every night beside him, he has a nice tummy to put my head on. He didn't like to take baths that much at the time, seriously that issue has gotten better... yay! I had to think about this one.

After the years of dealing with my parents mistakes and their love life, was I going to fall right into their footsteps and get married? What if it didn't work out? My daughter would be the one to suffer the most, I thought. Happily she would be living her life, thinking everything was hunky dory and then one day her parents would get tired of one another and they would split. I wasn't sure if I wanted to place that on her. After some thinking and then some shopping, I started to change my mind. I would have to take a chance on this love thing and in the end I might lose but he might lose too.

There is a funny, funny thing about marriage. After the years pass your love does change as some people worry about. It flips and floats and meanders along. At times you will get on one another's last nerve but you know what? It's cool. Send him out of town for a weekend with the boys. I like to think of it as family and a family is all I ever wanted.

Having seen what your parents went through in their marriage, did it ever hinder your love decisions?

Watching them, did it make you more aware of what you didn't want in your relationships?