Children Ruin Everything Season 2, Episode 8: Each Other

Sleep

With a new baby refusing to sleep and a return to the office looming for Astrid, she and James consider desperate measures.

21 min

Friends

Feeling like parenthood has eroded her friendships, Astrid jumps at a playdate, and James attempts to keep his own commitments.

21 min

Dignity

Following embarrassing run-ins with her boss and co-workers, Astrid feels on the back foot and disconnected from her younger co-workers. Astrid realizes her best move might be to attend a drink night with the rest of her team.

Screen Time

With their kids’ faces always buried in their screens, Astrid and James enact a weekend screen ban, but when Astrid inadvertently takes on an assignment at work and James gets put in charge of his company’s social media accounts, leading by example becomes more complicated than they originally thought. In a bid to get some work done, James takes the older kids to the park to distract them while he sneaks in some social media updates and Astrid stays home to put the baby down for a nap before launching into her own assignment. But without the hypnotic power of electronics, Astrid and James are in for an uphill battle.

Privacy

Astrid and her sister suspect their mom is hiding something from them. They begin snooping around. Their mother appears to be dating someone new. A request to launch a new product at work leads James to agree to meet with Ennis' cousin.

Fairness

Between Astrid and her sister Dawn’s kids, their mother Nisha is feeling burnt out on babysitting duties. When she announces her retirement from free childcare, it falls to Astrid and Dawn to try and get her back on board for watching their kids. While Astrid scrambles for childcare, James faces a growing conflict between their two oldest kids, Felix and Viv, as an opportunity presents itself for one of them to be the face of a new marketing campaign at James’s work.

Identity

When Astrid and James’ daughter Viv answers on a school assignment that she is Indigenous instead of her actual heritage, Indian, Astrid begins to feel guilty that she has not properly taught Viv about their family history. But as Astrid tries to share their cultural heritage with Viv, she quickly realizes she may not be well versed in it either. As Astrid struggles to impart their shared past on her daughter, James struggles with a growing sense that in spite of being a natural, their son Felix might not love baseball the way James did growing up.

Teamwork

Getting away from their family for a night might prove to be harder than expected as Astrid and James try to divide and conquer at bedtime.

Me Time

Running an errand, Astrid gets some much-needed alone time, but she might be on borrowed time before the chaos of her house finds her.

Money

When an unexpected expense puts Astrid and James over their budget, they must attempt to tighten their belts while still keeping a promise.

Weekends

With long days at the office, Astrid cannot shake the feeling that she is missing out on key moments with their kids. Astrid convinces James that what the family needs is an adventure together.

22 min

Arguments

Reaching a tipping point, Astrid and James need to vent about their growing list of grievances toward one another.

22 min

Expectations

With a move out of the city and their home of a decade looming, Astrid and James look back on when they first moved in. With Astrid set to give birth to her first child, her mother and sister do not see eye to eye on Astrid's birth plan.

23 min

Momentum

With potential buyers coming to look at their house sooner than they expected, Astrid and James try to rally the kids to clean and get out to the park before their open house begins, but their daughter Viv takes a vow to not ever leave their home.

23 min

Parenting

Astrid and James are forced to examine their differing parenting approaches to dealing with their daughter's behavior issues.

21 min