S4 • E13 Apr 4, 2008 46m
Jennifer Anderson loves her busy life with her four lively children, all under the age of seven. For 'Jen', it's noisy, hectic and unpredictable, but also fun-filled and exciting. Too noisy and too hectic, according to her more sedate, older sister, Michelle Wood, herself the mother of one well-behaved 15 year-old daughter. Michelle holds to the traditional 'children should be seen and not heard' school of parenting. She thinks that if Jen only emulated her über-organized big sis, the four little animals in the Anderson zoo would get tamed, leaving more 'me' time for Jen, including more time the two sisters could spend together. Then maybe they could then recapture the closeness and intimacy they shared before Jen became a baby factory. As for Jen, she wishes her sister could just loosen up and accept the way she parents instead of trying to change her and the kids. Maybe Michelle could even suck up her objections to her nieces' decibel levels and actually get to know them and enjoy their company. As Michelle embarks on her 48-hour stint as crash test mommy to Jen's brood, the question is: will Michelle's methods tame the children or will they rise up and mutiny? More important, will the sisters find some middle ground between their two diametrically opposed styles of parenting, or will that problem continue to drive them further apart?
