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Monday, April 18, 2005
Honolulu Resident Strangles British-Accented Know-It-Alls - Film At Eleven
Good Lord. My wife is watching her second nanny reality show for the evening. The first one was on Fox, this one's on... (takes a look at the screen)... ABC, I think. Respectively, that's Nanny 911 and Super Nannies.
Whatever.
The premise is that a dowdy woman with a British accent comes to your home and show you what you're doing wrong with your children. Fine. Not very compelling, but at least it plays on some domestic schadenfreude.
But! But then we're supposed to believe that because of this, everything will get better in a matter of days and the family will automatically be perfect. That strikes me as a whole lot of self-destructive wish fulfillment. To think that the solution to a perfect family comes from a television crew and a show-off super-guardian is just plain wrong. The same can be said of various marriage reality shows, but here I'll go for the handy conservative standby: "Think of the children! The children!"
As an errant parent, wouldn't your time be better spent initiating quick slaps on a misbehaving child's behind than calling in a TV show to air your dirty laundry?
My God, doesn't anyone even remember the Loud family?
Anyone?
The good news is, I watched the end of Nanny 911 and apparently the magic fix didn't take - next week we'll see the parents from this week's episode are still miserable, still fighting with each other... But now they're calling in a guy in a bowler named Mister Marriage, I think.
It's a spin-off: Marriage 911.
Somebody shoot me now.
Whatever.
The premise is that a dowdy woman with a British accent comes to your home and show you what you're doing wrong with your children. Fine. Not very compelling, but at least it plays on some domestic schadenfreude.
But! But then we're supposed to believe that because of this, everything will get better in a matter of days and the family will automatically be perfect. That strikes me as a whole lot of self-destructive wish fulfillment. To think that the solution to a perfect family comes from a television crew and a show-off super-guardian is just plain wrong. The same can be said of various marriage reality shows, but here I'll go for the handy conservative standby: "Think of the children! The children!"
As an errant parent, wouldn't your time be better spent initiating quick slaps on a misbehaving child's behind than calling in a TV show to air your dirty laundry?
My God, doesn't anyone even remember the Loud family?
Anyone?
The good news is, I watched the end of Nanny 911 and apparently the magic fix didn't take - next week we'll see the parents from this week's episode are still miserable, still fighting with each other... But now they're calling in a guy in a bowler named Mister Marriage, I think.
It's a spin-off: Marriage 911.
Somebody shoot me now.
