Nanny 911

I'm sure NANNY 911 isn't everyone's cup of tea. I myself had heard friends rave about the show a good few weeks before actually checking it out after my sister INSISTED I watch to learn how to get my little child to sleep in her own bed. From the first episode I watched I was HOOKED. This show is Must See for anyone with small children, a lot of rambunctious kids or even a snotty spouse who isn't pulling their weight around the house. The advice is priceless...and free! An hour of your week well spent. The premise of the show is some family that has a lot on it's plate and cant deal calls the show. There are three nannys on hand and going bu what your problems are they decide which nanny is best suited to offer advice. They send her to your house and she observes the way the family functions...or rather...doesn't function. Then she sits everyone down and tells them what the problem is. Mostly she never blames one person ..because as we all know...being a family is like being in a team and everyone has to work together to make things run smoothly. So the nanny points out the problems she can see with each member of the family and day by day they work on improving the situation. There are rewards and minor punishments and stuff like that to let the family know when they have done right or wrong. Usually by the end of the show the family has made major improvements or at least minor improvements. Then for their troubles of showing their crazy dysfunctional family on TV they get a prize such as a trip. Watching this show has been a real learning experience for me. I'm not newly wed or even a new mom....I've been married 7 years and have a 6 year old. But the advice I've learned from watching NANNY 911 dis-proves the old adage "You cant teach an old dog new tricks". You can! I feel my patience and communication with my husband and daughter has improved by putting what I learned from the show to use. NANNY 911 is a winner!

This show is entertaining, but will eventually grow stale. How many times can you watch two stubborn adults who'd rather be friends than parents to their kids get called out on some of the most basic things? The solution to these households usually boil down to one of the following:

1) Say what you mean and mean what you say. In nearly every show the parents consistently make threats but never carry them out. Gee, I wonder why the kids don't listen?

2) The parents don't back each other up. Gee, ya think the kids may learn to exploit that? It cracks me up when it's over something irrelevant too. Dad says "no" to getting a cookie and then Mom says "OK". Even if the Dad was being too strict it's more important for the parents to display solidarity. Obviously, the kid picks up on this weakness and learns how to manipulate the adults.

The most amusing part of the show is when one of the parents break down because Jr. is unhappy. You'll often see a child flying into a tantrum when confronted with one of the Nanny's new rules. This tantrum is often accompanied with some of the phoniest sobbing you've ever heard. Then one of the doormat parents, usually the mother, falls for and surrenders to this blatant display of manipulation. Child 1; Parent 0. The Nanny will then confront the parent and the parent will be all offended by the requests of the Nanny! You might think the Nanny was requesting the parents turn their house into a military boarding school! This would be hysterical if it wasn't so sad. For every 1 of these brats that a Nanny fixes, millions will pour into society.

This is an important show because these kinds of spineless parents are becoming the norm. It seems like whenever I go out I run into a wild brat accompanied with a parent who completely ignores what the kid is doing. It bothers me more to see a parent doing absolutely nothing than it does to see (and hear) a bratty kid running wild in a public place.

Having a few days off from college recently and as I was flicking through the channels to see what was on, I came across this rubbish on ITV, who screened several episodes recently as part of their new morning line up to replace the chat show Trisha.

Nanny 911 is about baby-sitters going to look after children who seem to suffer behaviour problems.

Nanny 911 doesn't make pleasant viewing and most of the time, all you get is children shouting and screaming. A rather noisy programme.

How you can call this entertainment I will never know. A load of rubbish.

I don't know how two shows with the same premise can be so totally different. Perhaps it's the nannies. Supernanny Jo from Supernanny is a pleasant, friendly and outgoing young woman. All the nannies from Nanny 911 are stiff and icy, even with these young children. In one episode, Nanny Stella had to show the children how to hug and cuddle, and she looked extremely uncomfortable doing it. This was a family who seemed unable to show any affection, although they had 6 children under age 5. If you want someone to come in and TELL you how to do it, then you need Nanny 911. If you want someone to come in and SHOW you how to do it, then you need Supernanny.