Quick Take: Up All Night, "Mr. Bob's Toddler Kaleidoscope"
Working mom vs. stay-at-home mom.
Review: Up All Night, "Mr. Bob's Toddler Kaleidoscope"
(S0105) I honestly think that this was the best episode of Up All Night since the premiere around a month ago. Reagan and Chris enroll Amy in a playgroup that leaves Reagan feeling inadequate as a working mother and Chris as the star parent of the group.
The episode opens with Reagan and Chris playing peek-a-boo with Amy at the group and the leader of the group, Mr. Bob, criticizes them for being too aggressive with their peek-a-boos. Who knew there was such a thing? Chris soon buys into the mumbo jumbo that Mr. Bob feeds them on coddling Amy while Reagan wants to stand apart. On a side note, I agree with Reagan here. You cannot create a perfect utopia for children because it truly doesn't prepare them for the real world. There will be noise in the world and everyone will not have a pleasant voice.
It's not long before Reagan's behavior gets them kicked out of playgroup. A fellow parent, Kayla's mom, begins making comments towards Regan for being late to group and such and she immediately feels the need to over-compensate. She decides to revise the nursery rhyme "Itsy Bitsy Spider" by adding a verse where the spider learns from its mistakes which impresses Mr. Bob and relieves Chris. He was fearful that she would embarrass herself and hence him. Reagan's behavior is completely realistic. I think any parent would react the same way when questioned or criticized for their parenting techniques. Although, not long after Reagan is an all out verbal war with Kayla's mom after she comments that Amy is not crawling because Reagan works and doesn't have the time to be there for her. I think that's an unwritten cardinal rule of parenting, you never blame a child's development on a parents need to work. Since rule number three of the group is not to be a meanie Reagan, Chris and Amy have to leave, but of course Kayla's mom gets to stay. Isn't that how it always works? You get provoked, you try to defend yourself and you end up being the bad person. I hate when that happens.
Reagan and Kayla's mom do make amends at the end of the episode after they destroy the stroller that Kayla's mom was attempting to close.
I think what made this episode stand out from the others was that we finally saw Reagan and Chris outside the confines of their home dealing with a situation common to many parents. Yes, the premise was still a bit cliché, but, it wasn't as trite as getting a new car or trying to maintain their coolness. Hopefully Up All Night has taken a turn in the right direction. They did receive a full season pick-up already so hopefully they can continue with episodes like this one to make it to season two or maybe Amy is going to have to grow up quickly through the magic of television to add to the humor. Having a talking Lily on Modern Family this season has done wonders.
