Extreme Guide to Parenting airs a new episode on Bravo tonight. On tonight’s episode called, “The Smartest, Most Handsome, Best Kid Ever”, Marisa wants her only child, Austen, to be the best at everything, even if it means pushing him to the limit.
On the last episode, three years ago, Wendy and Tyler got rid of everything they owned and became nomads living out of their SUV. Now that their kids are older, life on the road has lost its charm. While Wendy and the kids longed for a place to call home, Tyler feared any change could lead straight back his greatest fear. . .a “normal life.” Did you watch the last episode? We recapped it all right here for you.
On tonight’s episode Marisa wants her only child, Austen, to be the best at everything, even if it means pushing him to the limit. At four years old, he plays five sports, knows the U.S. Presidents and can write his name. But that’s not enough for his over-achieving mother. Husband Jeff challenges Marisa to face her own fears before pushing Austen any further.
Tonight’s episode is going to be a great episode and you won’t want to miss it, so be sure to tune in for our live coverage of the show tonight at 10:30 PM EST! While you wait for our recap hit the comments and let us know how excited you are about this new episode of Extreme Guide to Parenting.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
The Eisenbergs take supporting their child to a whole new level. They (more like his mom) raise their son Austen to be a leader and only a leader in hope that one day he will become president. Marisa is somewhat of a perfectionist – she thinks if she pushes her son hard enough he’ll be able to accomplish anything he (or she) sets his mind to. Meanwhile her husband often finds himself playing a buffer to her more aggressive parenting style. He too wants his son to succeed in life, but he’s scared that if they push Austen too hard then the little boy will grow up and go in a different direction. Also he wants his son to have a childhood. One that’s filled with both responsibilities and opportunities to have fun.
Marisa on the other hand believes she was in fact denied in her childhood. Her parents never pushed her even though she’s grown up to start two successful businesses. So in her mind, if that’s what lax parenting can accomplish then imagine what Austen will be with her shoving him towards success.
And she does more than push. She tells her he’s “The Smartest, Most Handsome, Best Kid Ever” which is nice, but it can also instill in him a certain amount of cockiness. No one is going to like him if he goes around acting like he is the best nor do any of the other mothers appreciate it when Marisa tells her son this in front of their own kids.
However her actions while extreme are rooted from a deep-seated fear. Her parents were unable to push her or her brother Harrison because they were going through a divorce. And at the time Marisa grew up with parents that were more involved in their own lives than they were in her kids. So she used to think that if she was perfect enough then everything else would be perfect and when that never happened – she grew up feeling like a failure. That’s why she tells her son he’s perfect.
But Harrison warns her that she’s overdoing it. Austen is her only child and according to her husband Jeff (who’s probably scared she’ll do this to their second child) he’s going to stay her only child. And Harrison thinks that she’s channeling all of her energy into Austen because she can’t spread her ambitions out. There all on one child.
Austen is only four and his mother has him involved in every sport she can get her hands on and that includes ice-skating. And this summer he’s going to a camp where his age group isn’t allowed to wear floating vests in the pool. Now Austen can swim but he’s never done it without his vest so naturally he’s sacred he’ll drown without it. Though his mother simply wants him to get over that. She doesn’t want her son to have fears or worse grow up with them.
Yet her husband points out that she has a fear as well. Marisa is scared of diving. She had had an accident when she was kid and hasn’t been back to the diving board since. Jeff tried to push her into conquering her fear and she didn’t like it. It seems she only likes pushing when it’s done her way.
So she told Austen’s swimming teacher that if she didn’t the little boy out of his safety vest – she was going to take him to a new coach and lie about Austen’s age. One of the things his teacher was telling Marisa was that Austen has to learn in his correct age group and development. And Marisa didn’t want that. She wanted her Austen to be better than everyone in his age group.
Because it’s really all about competition.
Marisa isn’t the only mother willing to go to such lengths. Her friend and other people they know all buy into the competitive mom strategy. So much so that people are even capable of hiring men from Italy to come to the states just to teach their kids soccer. That’s how far they want to go to get the perfect child.
So Marissa attended a seminar on competitive moms and surprise it was really about the damage competitive moms can do to their kids. Marisa had thought it was about how to improve her competitiveness. Hence she was in for a rude awakening.
The doctor hosting the seminar mainly talked about the detrimental effects and seeing as Marisa believes her son to be the happiest – she ignored his sound advice. She thinks if her son is happy or claims to be happy then there’s nothing wrong with her parenting.
Then when she got back home, she continued to try and teach her son all the things she felt was necessary. Like table manners by taking him to an expensive restaurant and having him try their famous lobster. As it turns out – he would have preferred pasta.
And later Jeff induced Marisa to dive and though she did a small one – her family was proud of her. She had to conquer her fear before she could pressure Austen. And the second she did, she got her son to go swimming without his vests.
It was important to her that her son be the best at summer camp!
THE END!
