Take Home Nanny
Parents learn hardball lessons with a soft touch.
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that the children in the show's featured families exhibit behavior that just about anyone would recognize as over the top, including hitting. The good news is that the show is about correcting that behavior, but scenes of tantrum after tantrum can be grating. Overall, this show will probably have more appeal for parents than kids.
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What's the Story?
In each episode of TAKE HOME NANNY, professional nanny Emma Jenner visits families with young, out-of-control kids to help them restore order and good behavior with rules and discipline. After observing the family, Nanny Emma demonstrates how to turn things around with practical tips and suggestions.
Is It Any Good?
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.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how reality shows are made. Do you think that scenes are ever staged if the producers want to capture a certain event and/or someone didn't get it "right" the first time? Families can also discuss the kids' behavior and the parents learn to work on it. Were the strategies successful? Do you think parents will be able to keep them up?
TV Details
- Premiere date: July 14, 2008
- Cast: Emma Jenner
- Network: TLC
- Genre: Reality TV
- TV rating: TV-PG
- Last updated: February 24, 2022
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