Lessons from Supernanny

We loooove Supernanny. There are so many reasons to enjoy this show:

1. The kids are always a complete nightmare. After a particularly difficult day with our own rowdy offspring, it's always nice to see someone with children who hit their parents with rocks and make their babysitters cry.

2. We take delight in our self-righteous judgment of these parents completely clueless to obvious problems in their household. I say this fully aware that if camera crews filmed us for two days, people all over America would be laughing at us and possibly calling social services.

3. Supernanny always solves the family's problems with perfectly ordinary discipline techniques in only 20 minutes. It's so amazing! All it takes is a handwritten chart of some kind, a naughty step/stool/bean bag, and a jar of jelly beans. Suddenly everyone loves each other and goes to bed at 8pm without complaint.

From our completely objective viewings of many episodes of Supernanny, we have noticed a few common elements in these families.

1. Their kids don't get enough sleep. Ergo, the parents don't get enough sleep. Apparently getting our kids consistently to bed at a reasonable hour is 1/2 the battle.

2. Mom is usually a short-order cook. Each child gets to choose their entre at every meal and reserves the right to change their mind multiple times mid-meal. It's like being on a cruse ship everyday!

3. If you want to bring chaos into your family, go out and get yourself some multiples. Twins, Triplets, Quads--doesn't matter. The presence of multiples always leads to screaming, biting, and generalized craziness.

4. About 1/2 way through the show, the parents rebel against Jo-Jo's rules acting as if they never expected her to institute such Draconian measures such as bedtime. One would assume that they had never seen previous Supernanny episodes. It never fails to make us laugh and it one of the best part of the show.

In general, I feel like our kids are fairly well-adjusted, but the Twin thing always freaks me out. A small part of me fears that we're going to be on Supernanny someday. Is it possible that all twins are hardwired to just Flip Out at some point? Will the kids turn 3 and suddenly destroy the house? Stay tuned . . .