Nick at Nite's Instant Mom Is A Good Family Comedy

                                           

Instant Mom is a family comedy starring Tia Mowry-Hardrict (Stephanie), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Maggie) and Michael Boatman (Charlie). The cast also includes three talented young people: Tylen Jacob Williams (James), Sydney Park (Gabby) and Damarr Calhoun (Aaron).

Stephanie is twenty-five. Her husband, Charlie, has been married before and he has three children. Stephanie knows very little about parenting, but she's doing her best to be a good stepmother. She's learning as she goes and when she doesn't get something quite right, her mother, Maggie, does not hesitate to lend a helping hand - if Stephanie wants to accept it or not.

I first heard about this sitcom while watching an episode of Tia and Tamera on The Style Network. Tia had decided not to return to BET's The Game. I could see it was a difficult choice for her to make and I felt for her. Not too long after, she received a call from her manager about this role. For a little while there it looked like Instant Mom wasn't going to happen for Tia, but she eventually got the good news. She was extremely happy, of course, and I was happy for her.

I usually add a pilot to my library because it's free ($2.99 isn't much to pay for a HD episode, but free is so much better:), but I paid for this one because I like Tia, and it's a nice family show. Tia is doing a good job as Stephanie, and Michael Boatman's performance is very good. It's a pleasure to watch Sheryl Lee Ralph (I like Maggie's humorous words of wisdom). I like Aaron (Damarr is a little cutie) and James (Tylen is as good an actor as his brother, Tyler, who played Chris in Chris Rock's sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris"). And Gabby (Sydney Park): I like that her presence is nothing like some other television shows; the ones with teens who show their parents no respect at all, the ones that make me say to the TV screen, "C'mon, now. Who's the adult and who's the child?"

Instant Mom entertains while putting important messages out there for the viewers. What happens between scenes reminds me of TBS's 2010 sitcom "Are We There Yet", so I was thinking it would be nice if something different, more original, was going on there. But that's a small thing. I like this show. I've watched this episode twice and I look forward to the remaining episodes of Season One

Valentine's Day: A Holiday That Celebrates Love

I Love You - These words are spoken to spouses, sons, daughters, parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, best friends... Some use the word 'love' like they know what it means, but it's obvious by their actions that they have no clue.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is not always easy. Love is serious business. Love takes work.

I look at 1 Corinthians 13 and confess that I have stuff to work on - the 'keeping no record of wrongs', in particular. Especially when the wrong doing didn't just anger me, but hurt me to my heart. How about you?