Not so Super after all

Don't know if there's any fans of the "Nanny" reality shows. There's two out there. Super Nanny and Nanny 911. I must say that Nanny 911 kicks Super Nanny's ass. I can sum up any Super Nanny show for you very quickly: Super Nanny comes into the house and sets up a schedule for the entire household. She then teaches parent the proper use of the "naughty chair" time out method. Domestic bliss ensues!

Nanny 911, on the other hand, has Nanny's that customize their approach based on the family. For example, last night they had a family with 3 sets of twins. Makes me want to never have sex again just thinking about having that many kids. Anyway, the major problem was that Mom was always screaming at the kids, who were running wild. Dad worked out of his home office and his idea of helping was to scream at his wife to keep the kids quiet. The nanny did set up some rules (no hitting, whining, etc). However, the big problem was communication. So she spent most of the show getting the kids to talk to the parents about what they were feeling instead of hitting and crying, and getting the parents to talk to each other. The dad always criticized the mom who then shut down and wouldn't talk any more. In any event, very entertaining and enlightening.

The reason I like the show is two-fold. First, it always makes you feel better to know that there are children out there much more rotten then your own. Doesn't make you feel like you're doing to bad a job if your kids act better than some of the ones you see on the show. More importantly, however, it does provide some good ideas on how to deal with your kids. It's hard to believe that a household could go from kids running wild to everyone sitting quietly at dinner in just a week, but they had a kid that would whine for like 20 minutes get calmed down by the Nanny in just a minute by talking to the kid and listening to them.

I will admit, there are times I think I'm doing a good job as a parent and other times I think I'm the worst parent there is. Not that our children are as out of control as some that are shown on these shows, but it would be nice to have a professional of some sort come in and give my wife and I tips on ways to better handle the kids. Having one kid with ADHD and another with PDD is not easy. It also doesn't help that my wife and I aren't always on the same page. I need to work on that. We should probably communicate better but it's tough sometimes. By the time we can actually sit down and have a conversation, it's late and we're usually tired. Not an excuse, just a reality. And I won't even get into the anger issues. I could rant for a while about that but I don't think it would be productive.

Anyway, I'm taking some steps to work on the parenting skills. We're both starting to reach out to find additional support mechanisms to help us. So wish us luck and send prayers our way. Every little bit helps.

Comments

Popular Posts