Parents' Guide to Yes, Dear

TV CBS Comedy 2000
Yes, Dear Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

By Pam Gelman , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 13+

Yuppies vs. working class -- all old news.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 11+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 7+

Based on 1 kid review

What's the Story?

YES, DEAR is about the families of two sisters. Kim and Greg Warner are the quintessential young, fit, good-looking yuppies. She's a stay-at-home, everything-has-to-be perfect mom and he's the successful breadwinner. Her sister Christina and husband Jimmy are stereotypically working class and raise their own kids with a more casual parenting style. Yes, Dear showcases the families differences in parenting styles.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say ( 2 ):
Kids say ( 1 ):

Compared to the stellar acting on Everybody Loves Raymond or the provocative topics covered on Roseanne, Yes, Dear is thin and says nothing new about the conflicts between the haves and the have-nots. Also, there is very little diversity in the casting -- white yuppies vs. white working class. And as for learning about relationships, the storylines are weak and lack any deep insight into parenting or relationships.

Compared to many shows on primetime today, this is a relatively harmless sitcom for families with teens to sit and watch together. There are discussions about sex, relationships, and drinking that parents may find inappropriate for young adolescents. Chances are, the unoriginal humor poked at marriage and raising kids will be boring to adolescent viewers, and soon after watching, it will more than likely bore adults too.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the different parenting styles on display here and how they affect the kids. Are these differing parenting styles related to economic stressors? Also, is there a middle ground between loose and structured parenting that may be more realistic? They could also discuss the use of stereotypes in situation comedies like this one -- why do writers rely on them to create humorous scenes?

TV Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by

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