Wait 'Til You Have Kids!!
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 A game show that was doomed from the start due to background check failure.
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Wait ‘Til You Have Kids!! (with the word “You” underlined in the show’s logo) is a game show that aired on a game show block on The Family Channel (known today as Freeform). A production of Jay Wolpert Enterprises in association with MTM Enterprises, Inc., Wait ‘Til You Have Kids!! was based on a Chuck Barris-produced game show called The Parent Game, which like this show was created by Gary Jonke.
Gameplay
Three couples are asked four multiple-choice dilemma questions about parenting, and using letter blocks, they must guess how a parenting expert answered those questions to score points.
An example of a dilemma question is as follows:
On Christmas morning, your five-year-old daughter, Melissa, receives a copy of the movie Babe. By the time your guests sit down to Christmas dinner, Melissa has already watched the movie three times. When you bring out the 12 lb. ham, Melissa bursts into tears and wails “You’re gonna eat Babe for Christmas dinner?” As the group loses its collective appetite, do you…
A) Make her a PB&J and let her watch TV while you eat,
B) Tell her this is a different kind of ham, or
C) Send the ham home with a friend and order pizza?
In this case, the answer given by the parenting expert is B) Tell her this is a different kind of ham.
On the first three questions, one person of each couple has the final say after his or her spouse chose an answer. On the fourth question, both spouses of each couple answer individually.
After the questions, the couple with the most points wins the game and a couple of prizes, and they move on to the bonus round. If the game ends in a tie, the couples involved in the tie are given a dilemma statement and must guess whether it’s OK or a problem to break the tie.
In the bonus round, the spouses of the winning couple take turns guessing whether the dilemmas are OK or a problem within 60 seconds. Each correct answer lights up a window on an on-screen house. If the couple lights up all seven windows before time runs out, they win $1,000 and either a trip or a car. If they don’t, they win $100 for each window lit up.
Why It's A FAKE Parenting Expert
- Guessing how a parenting expert answered dilemma questions does not make for an interesting game show.
- The main game is a drag, as it only consists of four questions that get dragged out for too long.
- Before each question, a clip of a child explaining his or her thoughts or experience on a situation is played, causing the game to be even more of a drag than it already is.
- More often than not, the subjects discussed in these clips do not relate to the subjects of the following questions.
- The disagreements that couples have on answers during the first three questions often lead to arguments between spouses, which is not fun to watch on a show like this.
- Broken scoring that can make the first three questions meaningless. The first three questions are worth one, two, and three points, in that order. On the fourth question, each correct guess is worth four points, for a maximum of eight points on that question. With this scoring, it’s possible for a couple to win the game by guessing incorrectly on the first three questions and playing the fourth question perfectly afterward.
- The original set is laughably cheap-looking, as it looks like a kid’s drawing of a living room.
- The original theme tune sounds childish, as it contains the melody of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and the ABC Song.
- Ellen Winters, the original “parenting expert”, was revealed to not be a real parenting expert after she gave answers to many questions that caused parents and actual parenting experts to question her credentials.
- Because of this, the show was put on hiatus for a month after the first forty of the sixty-five episodes.
Qualities Of A REAL Parenting Expert
- Tom Parks did a decent job hosting the show.
- The bonus round is good, as it has a faster pace than the main game and a straightforward goal.
- When the show returned from its hiatus, it had a nicer-looking set that looked like an actual living room, a nicer-sounding theme tune, and an actual parenting expert in Marilyn Kagan, who had her radio show at the time and had her TV show before joining this show.