Get in Your Naughty Chair

We watched our favorite nanny on Monday night trying to help a husband and wife with five boys ages 9, 8, 6, 5, and 3. If I had been Super Nanny, my first suggestion would've been to get rid of a couple of those kids--any child under the age of 7 would immediately be dropped off on the doorstep of UNICEF or Sally Fields' house. But SN instead decided to sit the parents down and show them videos of themselves being bad parents and then they had to talk about why they hated each other so much and write down a list of what they despised most about the other person and then burn it up on the front lawn with the kids watching, telling them, Mommy and Daddy are going to try not to get a divorce and split all of you alls up. The father was told not to yell at his two stepsons so much and to have quality time with them. He took them out front and made them wash his taxi cab and splurted water down their pants. They loved it. Later, the whole gang went to the park and played soccer. By the time SN left, everyone loved everyone and would remain in harmony for the final thirty seconds of the show.

They have this part at the conclusion of each episode called "Family Update." I always wonder how long after the show was taped that they go back and have this positive report. One day? Fifteen minutes? If you really want to convince me that SN is worth her weight, go back in six months and see how the family is doing--if Daddy is still playing Chutes and Ladder with the kids every night and Mommy is not weeping incessantly in the corner of the living room. I wish they would automatically include a year of family therapy because you know that some of these families are dealing with more complex problems such as addiction, abuse, huge debt, past trauma, etc.

I do love Jo-Jo though. I love how she's British and how that makes some of what she says sound like she has a speech impediment or has taken elocution lessons from Barbara Walters. And when she cries, "Well done!" to the kids, I feel like clapping and bouncing up and down, as if I did something good too.