The Super Nanny—required TV watching with something missing

The “Super Nanny” arrives on the scene in a British taxi. She looks proper and stern. Super Nanny is an ABC-TV program which is on Wednesday evenings. The purpose of the program is to bring hope and change for troubled families. It makes for good TV.

I have watched several episodes and have begun to see a pattern in these troubled families. Dad is uninvolved and distant. (Few dads realize the importance of their role in the family.) Mom is overwhelmed trying hard to hold the family together. She is overworked and disrespected. There are no schedules and no list of duties which need to be accomplished. There is no discipline; no consequences for wrong doing because there are no rules. It’s chaos. It’s an ongoing frat party with major amounts of head butting, disrespect, and outright disobedience.

The Nanny works with the family to put schedules into place. The family makes up a set of “house rules”: no cursing, no yelling, no fighting, no talking back, and no biting off the head of pet frog Elmer. She makes the parents enforce the “new found” rules. Disobedience results in a loss of privileges which have been agreed to beforehand.

The Nanny spends a week with the family helping put the new system in place. One thing I’ve noticed is there is never any mention of a spiritual component. (Maybe it was addressed in programs that I missed.) You may say, “so what Jerry?” I’m speaking from experience here; one spiritual point must be made.

When “Little Princess” and “Juvenile Junior” see no spiritual accountability in the parents, they will at some time question by what authority do parents have the right to tell them what to do? A time will come when Princess and Junior will rip the “veneer” off of the good family image and view Mom and Dad’s attempts to bring order and discipline as just two “old goats” trying to make their life miserable. Little Princess and Juvenile Junior are asked to be accountable to Mom and Dad but…who are Mom and Dad accountable to?

Mom and Dad, you are accountable to God for the gift of your children which God has given you. You are God’s chosen stewards of His beautiful creation. Start in Genesis, go through the Bible; the message of the Bible is clear, you will answer to God for your parenting. Genesis 18:18-19: “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him." Eph. 6:1-4: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”Honor your father and mother"--which is the first commandment with a promise--"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

You may say to me, “Jerry, I don’t believe that!” If that is the case, it doesn’t make any difference whether you believe it or not. God does not need your approval for anything. You will be held accountable.

Our children need to see that we, the parents and grandparents, are accountable to God for their care and upbringing. They need to see in our every day lives that we live recognizing God’s very present reality in every day events. We need to demonstrate our love and caring for our children and grandchildren by loving them enough to call them to account and to discipline them in love.

Watch the Super Nanny, put into practice what you need to do but remember we are all accountable to God.