S4 • E11 Mar 21, 2008 46m
Ruby Marin knows now that she had kids too young. A teen rebel, pregnant at 18, Ruby now finds herself, at 22, a single mom with a son, Dylan 4, and a daughter, Kelly, 3. Ruby is often overwhelmed by the responsibility of parenting Dylan and Kelly entirely on her own. It doesn't help that her big sister Ivania's idea of help is to constantly be on Ruby's case for her perceived shortcomings as a mom. Ivania, a successful legal aide, feels Ruby is underachieving: too easily giving up on training her kids and not showing enough patience or persistence. Why, for instance, aren't the kids toilet trained yet?, says Ivania? She's sure she can teach Ruby a thing or two. After all, she says, "anybody can parent ...it's not rocket science." As Ivania assumes the mantle of crash test mommy for the next 48 hours, both sisters are going to need to learn, and change, if their relationship is going to improve. Can Ivania learn to show a little more compassion to her baby sister, and understand that deeds speak louder than words when it comes to helping out? And will Ruby realize she needs to stop bemoaning her situation and get her ass into gear by taking concrete steps to improve her life, both for herself and for the sake of her kids? There's a lot at stake for mom, sister and kids in the next two days. Question is, are they up to the task?
