Browse all episodes of Children Ruin Everything

James and Astrid try to have a nice family dinner to celebrate a special occasion, but their young children make it challenging.

Meals

Pressured to not look "like a dad" for an upcoming work event, James takes his kids out on a shopping trip. Seán Cullen guest stars.

Bodies

James and Astrid attempt to get some alone time, but the kids keep getting in the way. Meanwhile, Dawn and Bo renew their vows.

Intimacy

While Astrid is away on a business trip, James struggles to keep the Tooth Fairy tradition alive.

Truth

Despite getting sick, Astrid and James have to organize a kids birthday party, and Felix seems to be growing up faster than Astrid thought.

Sick Days

As they race against time, the Berneys struggle to survive a chaotic road trip to Manitoulin Island.

Road Trip

Following a brush with death, James and Astrid realize they need to make a death plan, including finding legal guardians for Felix and Viv.

Death

Frustrated over their cluttered home full of kids' stuff, James and Astrid decide to purge.

Space

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

Sleep

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

Friends

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.

Dignity

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.

Screen Time

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.

Privacy

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.

Fairness

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.

Identity

When Felix’s best friend moves away, Astrid and James must confront the influence of the outside world on their kids.

Each Other

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.

Teamwork

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.

Me Time

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

Money

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.

Weekends

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

Arguments

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.

Expectations

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.

Momentum

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

Parenting

While waiting on the results of an evaluation for Viv, Astrid and James feel the pressure of figuring out how to best help their possibly neurodivergent child. But when Viv’s new doctor, guest star Emma Hunter, rubs Astrid the wrong way, Astrid tries coming up with her own strategies for Viv. Meanwhile, at Gero’s Grocery, the enlistment of Fintekoäly – a tech company hired to automate checkouts at Gero’s –  makes Marla uneasy.

Therapy

With free box seat tickets to a Raptor’s game from Fintekölay in hand, Astrid and James are hesitant to discipline Felix and Viv when they slack on their chores. Punishing the kids would mean missing the game and that’s something they want to avoid at all costs. But after the kids get caught in an escalating lie, Astrid and James realize that maybe their discipline style can use a little work.

Consequences

After the site of the future World Cup Village is closed due to goose poop contamination, Astrid is in charge of bringing the issue to the World Cup Committee. But after a disastrous meeting with Councillor Flynn, head of the committee, and an embarrassing practice round with her family, Astrid’s confidence takes a nosedive. Meanwhile, James is determined to teach Viv how to ride a bike in one afternoon.

Confidence

Astrid and James struggle to find something to talk about other than their kids while having dinner at a fancy restaurant. Feeling the pressure of keeping up with the exciting lives of their family and co-workers, Astrid and James regale each other with exaggerated stories from their week.

Talking

When Felix shrinks all his clothes doing laundry for the first time, Astrid and James are forced to buy him a new wardrobe. But shopping for clothes isn’t so easy now that Felix is developing his own style. On top of everything, Astrid and James wrestle with societal norms when Viv wants to start wearing crop tops. At Gero’s Grocery, Marla is working on a plan to start a fast fashion line.

Clothes

Astrid and James plan a night out to celebrate Astrid's recent win at work. With help from Dawn, they're able to book the highly sought-after neighborhood babysitter, Jeffrey. Everything is going perfectly– the kids love Jeffrey; he's getting them to clean the house and even teaching them French. But when Viv's crush on Jeffrey threatens to ruin everything, Astrid and James struggle to take control of the situation while also taking Viv's big feelings into account.

Babysitters

When Astrid hears about Dawn's spontaneous trip to South America, she is determined to find a little spontaneity in her own life. With Astrid's convincing, she and James play hooky from work and buy tickets to a weekday matinee performance of Jagged Little Pill, the musical. But their plans are up in the air after getting a phone call from Viv's school saying she’s sick and needs to be sent home.

Spontaneity

When Astrid and James wake up hungover, all they want to do is lie down in a quiet dark room. To have the day to themselves, they decide to let Felix and Viv go on their screens all day. There’s only one problem. The internet is down. And the kids are bored. Adding to their pounding headaches, their chaotic neighbor Rachel and her kids come over, requiring even more energy from Astrid and James. Rachel is having marital problems and refuses to leave. Or stop talking.

Hangover

Astrid wonders if she's responsible for passing neurodivergent genes on to her daughter, Viv. So, when Astrid and James are consistently late for Viv's early morning meetings with the school counselor, Astrid is determined to get Viv to school on time in order for Viv to get the support she needs. As a family, they come up with a time management plan to get out of the house on time, but something always takes them off track. At Gero's Grocery, James gets hit with some unexpected news.

Leaving the House

After an unexpected change at Gero’s, James tries to busy himself with fixing a broken toilet. Astrid thinks she’s due for a raise.

Careers

Astrid and James realize they are at the dawning of a new era when Felix starts showing signs of pre-teen rebellion; James tries to ease tensions after he rejects Bo's job offer.

Respect

After Nisha gets in a fender bender, Astrid decides to help her buy a new car; James' stay-at-home duties eclipse his job search efforts.

Recognition

Astrid and James question whether they’re raising monsters when Felix and Viv refuse to pitch in around the house.

Chores

James, feeling left out when Ennis makes a new friend, inserts himself in Ennis' dodgeball tournament. Meanwhile, Astrid struggles to get Viv to control her emotions, especially when frustrations at work make it hard to lead by example.

Feelings

When James finds an old game console, he and Astrid attempt to find free time to play. But a bedtime routine threatens to eat up all the time between when the kids are supposed to be in bed and when Astrid and James have to go to bed themselves.

Bedtime

In a daytime soap opera influenced episode, Astrid feels pushed out of Dawn's pregnancy by Zinnia and begins to suspect her of something sinister. Meanwhile, James and Rachel clash over an incident at Viv's school takes a melodramatic life of its own.

Drama

After Felix gets in trouble for defacing school property, Felix teacher Mr. Dongall makes James feel like an inattentive parent and James goes to great lengths to prove the teacher wrong. Meanwhile, Astrid insists on handling the fallout from Leonard most recent campaign gaffe.

In a mockumentary style episode, Astrid realizes how hard she was on Nisha during her teenage years and tries to make up for it by arranging something special for Nisha's surprise birthday party. James misses the good old days of work.

Memories

During a family emergency, with both James and Astrid busy at work, they need to rethink their childcare plan.

Emergencies

Astrid and James get some much-needed adult time when they convince Nisha to take the kids for the night. The parents night gets complicated, however, when a small lie grows out of control.

With work keeping him busy, James feels even more disconnected from Felix. When Felix shares a personal secret with Astrid, James goes too far trying to learn the secret himself.

Connection

Astrid and James, who struggle to find a balance between being mom and dad to two kids and being who they were before offspring.

All Episodes of Children Ruin Everything

Browse all episodes of Children Ruin Everything

Season 1

Meals

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/12/2022

Bodies

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/19/2022

Intimacy

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 1/26/2022

Truth

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 2/2/2022

Sick Days

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/9/2022

Road Trip

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 2/13/2022

Death

Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 2/16/2022

Space

Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 2/23/2022