Do children need a mommy or a Nanny McPhee?

When I was little, I remember watching the movie Mary Poppins.  In my mind, Mary Poppins embodied the ideal mother-figure.  She was kind, loving, and attentive.  Oddly enough, in the movie, she was the nanny for two children whose parents were both alive and well in the same house as them.  The big-to-do in the Banks house-hold was the mother's discovery of women's suffrage and the right to vote.

Decades later, a new generation of an old theme came out:  nanny saves family from falling apart.

She comes when she's needed but not wanted and leaves when she's wanted but not needed. That's Nanny McPhee. She pops from out of nowhere although she swears she did knock.

Emma Thompson is Nanny McPhee who comes to the Brown household to tame Mr. Brown's (Colin Firth) seven bad-mannered children headed by Simon (Thomas Sangster, the lovestruck kid in Love Actually) who just drove away their seventeenth nanny. She introduces herself as a government nanny and is not associated with any agencies and promises Mr. Brown to teach his children five lessons.

But as the Brown children start to conceive plots to get rid of her, Nanny McPhee is way ahead of them. And with a magical tap of her cane, the lessons begin to unfold. Lesson no.1 - They will learn how to say 'please' and 'thank you'. Lesson no. 2 - They will do as they are told. Lesson no. 3 - They will learn to dress on their own. Lesson no. 4 - Learn to listen (which was really meant for Mr. Brown). And lesson no. 5 - Be prepared to face the consequences of one's actions.

But the magic does not end with the childrens' change of behavior. With each accomplished lesson, Nanny McPhee's face and figure changes as well.

This is a must-see movie for the whole family especially if you have school age children. Kids will enjoy the naughtiness of the Brown kids while parents, I'm pretty sure, will pick up more than just the five lessons Nanny McPhee taught the kids. You'll surely love Nanny McPhee, warts and all!    http://filteachlibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/02/nanny-mcphees-five-lessons.html

We have both movies in our house... and without question, the movie that captures our imagination and attention for the duration of the movie over and over again is Nanny McPhee.