Take Home Nanny

The show is mostly pleasant and offers a lot of good information, even if most of it isn't terribly new. The parents even talk a little bit about how they know what they should be doing, and the show makes a point of sympathetically acknowledging many parents' feelings of shame when their kids get out of control.

But the show's biggest selling point is Nanny Emma's soft-touch way of playing hard ball. While she doesn't let the parents off the hook for their role in their kids' bad behavior, she manages to correct them in a way that isn't condemning. She also manages to stay firm without yelling at the kids, going so far as to pick up one 3-year-old mid-tantrum and gently depositing her in her room until she's calmed down and is ready to listen. All in all, if you can get past all the scenes of screaming children, this is an interesting way to add a few tools to your parenting tool box.