The British are coming, or – should I say – they’re already here. Somehow they insinuated themselves into our collective unconscious without our permission. Below are some examples of how the British are taking over:
Tabatha Coffey: In her show “Tabatha Takes Over” (see?!?), she appears one day in front of a hair salon and asks the owner to meet her outside. Tabatha then proceeds to visually show the owner what is wrong with their shop and staff. After seeing all this, Tabatha literally takes over the shop (taking keys and canceling hair appointments for the week). She tries to correct what’s wrong, both physically and mentally with the staff and owner (i.e. – showing staff how to cut hair better, talking to the boss about how to treat the staff, etc.) I have to admit, she’s firm but fair about the whole thing. She does a renovation, if one is called for, and gets the owner and staff motivated about working again. She then returns six weeks later to make sure everything is still running smoothly.
Gordon Ramsay: In his show “Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” he walks into a restaurant and basically does the same thing as Tabatha Coffey – tears almost everything down so it can be built up again. He is a lot more ‘mean’ in how he tries to make corrections but he has a point: it’s about people eating food at these restaurants. Most, if not all, restaurant owners take offense to his suggestions but I think that’s more of a pride issue than a “he’s wrong” issue. At least at a hair salon you’re only going to have a bad haircut for a few weeks. A dirty restaurant can kill you.
Jo Frost: In her show “Super Nanny”, Jo appears to a family who is in desperate need of some discipline for their children. Usually there are one or two “problem children” that the parents cannot seem to handle. The Super Nanny evaluates what the problem is and then tells the parents what they should be doing in a soft voice while sitting at the kitchen table. You then see the results of the parents “conquering” their children and all is well. Most of the time it is simply a parent who doesn’t know how to discipline a child or doesn’t want to.
Kim Woodburn & Aggie Mackenzie: In the show “How Clean Is Your House?” these two women ‘invade’ a house and begin searching for dirt in every corner of the house. Most of the houses are “lived in” and need some help. Some are just plain garbage dumps and need to be gutted. My opinion is: if you’re looking for dirt in a house you will find it. I’d hate to have these ladies come to MY house – they would have a field day. The good thing is that they show cleaning tips and tricks that you can use to clean your own house.
Peter Walsh: In “Clean Sweep” there is a basic formula that goes something like this: Two rooms in a house get emptied on to the lawn… they make 3 piles (keep, sell, donate)… only the ‘keep’ stuff returns to the house… they price the items to ‘sell’ at a garage sale… the ‘donate’ stuff goes away… they have a garage sale… they reveal the cleaned up, renovated rooms… everyone is happy. So where does Peter Walsh come in? He helps the family decide what to keep, sell and donate. His basic tenant is “if you don’t need it, get rid of it” and people need a darn good reason to keep the items they want – especially if they’re not ‘practical’ items like sentimental tokens.
So the British seem to be showing us how to run a hair salon smoothly, keep restaurants clean, discipline our kids, clean our houses, and whether or not to keep that tchotchke our grandmother gave us on our third birthday.
Tabatha Coffey: In her show “Tabatha Takes Over” (see?!?), she appears one day in front of a hair salon and asks the owner to meet her outside. Tabatha then proceeds to visually show the owner what is wrong with their shop and staff. After seeing all this, Tabatha literally takes over the shop (taking keys and canceling hair appointments for the week). She tries to correct what’s wrong, both physically and mentally with the staff and owner (i.e. – showing staff how to cut hair better, talking to the boss about how to treat the staff, etc.) I have to admit, she’s firm but fair about the whole thing. She does a renovation, if one is called for, and gets the owner and staff motivated about working again. She then returns six weeks later to make sure everything is still running smoothly.
Gordon Ramsay: In his show “Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” he walks into a restaurant and basically does the same thing as Tabatha Coffey – tears almost everything down so it can be built up again. He is a lot more ‘mean’ in how he tries to make corrections but he has a point: it’s about people eating food at these restaurants. Most, if not all, restaurant owners take offense to his suggestions but I think that’s more of a pride issue than a “he’s wrong” issue. At least at a hair salon you’re only going to have a bad haircut for a few weeks. A dirty restaurant can kill you.
Jo Frost: In her show “Super Nanny”, Jo appears to a family who is in desperate need of some discipline for their children. Usually there are one or two “problem children” that the parents cannot seem to handle. The Super Nanny evaluates what the problem is and then tells the parents what they should be doing in a soft voice while sitting at the kitchen table. You then see the results of the parents “conquering” their children and all is well. Most of the time it is simply a parent who doesn’t know how to discipline a child or doesn’t want to.
Kim Woodburn & Aggie Mackenzie: In the show “How Clean Is Your House?” these two women ‘invade’ a house and begin searching for dirt in every corner of the house. Most of the houses are “lived in” and need some help. Some are just plain garbage dumps and need to be gutted. My opinion is: if you’re looking for dirt in a house you will find it. I’d hate to have these ladies come to MY house – they would have a field day. The good thing is that they show cleaning tips and tricks that you can use to clean your own house.
Peter Walsh: In “Clean Sweep” there is a basic formula that goes something like this: Two rooms in a house get emptied on to the lawn… they make 3 piles (keep, sell, donate)… only the ‘keep’ stuff returns to the house… they price the items to ‘sell’ at a garage sale… the ‘donate’ stuff goes away… they have a garage sale… they reveal the cleaned up, renovated rooms… everyone is happy. So where does Peter Walsh come in? He helps the family decide what to keep, sell and donate. His basic tenant is “if you don’t need it, get rid of it” and people need a darn good reason to keep the items they want – especially if they’re not ‘practical’ items like sentimental tokens.So the British seem to be showing us how to run a hair salon smoothly, keep restaurants clean, discipline our kids, clean our houses, and whether or not to keep that tchotchke our grandmother gave us on our third birthday.