S4 • E4 Feb 1, 2008 46m
Karen Jorgenson is a former recruiting executive who gave up her decade-long corporate career a year ago to be a full-time stay-at-home mom to her three young children, Ethan, 7, Claire, 5, and Rachel, 3. Her lifelong bachelor brother, Mark Thompson, still lives in that career world, where he's a criminal and immigration lawyer, and Karen's life change has created a chasm between brother and sister. Mark thinks his sister left her common sense back in the boardroom and that her life is actually pretty easy: all the kids need is a little law and order. As Mark begins his 48-hour stint as crash test mommy, sister Karen's hopes for the weekend are different. She feels Mark, already reserved by nature, is in terra incognita when it comes to parenting, and has kept himself aloof and emotionally removed from her kids. She wants him to put down his newspaper, make more of an effort and develop a heartfelt connection with the kids, becoming a real, loving uncle to them...and becoming closer to her in the process. But being crash test mommy is a seismic shock for the bachelor who doesn't cook and hasn't a clue about kids. Over the next 48 hours, will the jacket-and-tie attorney survive his close encounter with three active small children? What will he do when his adult modus operandi of reason, logic and compromise go unheeded by the youngsters? Will he learn to relate to the kids on their own level and be capable of showing them some genuine love and affection, or is he destined to remain an emotionally unavailable stranger to them? And, finally, will the experience help restore mutual respect between brother and sister, and bring them closer together?
