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20/20
Air Date: Friday, March 18, 2005
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on ABC
Episode Title: "N/A"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

REAL LIFE DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, ON ABC NEWS' "20/20," FRIDAY, MARCH 18

From yelling at the kids to having lazy husbands, John Stossel reports on the real-life woes of some everyday desperate housewives, on "20/20," FRIDAY, MARCH 18 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. Stossel reports from Wisteria Lane, set of the smash hit ABC drama "Desperate Housewives."

Lazy Husbands - Stay-at-home mom Nancy Arsenault and working mom Fran Carpentier actually have a lot in common - they're at their wits' end, fed up with their "lazy" husbands. They volunteered to participate in "20/20's" report on husbands who don't do enough around the house. Can Dr. Joshua Coleman, author of The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework, help get Nancy and Fran's husbands off the couch to help their wives?

Yelling at the Kids - Any satirical look at family life in America has to include kids driving their parents crazy and, on Wisteria Lane, it's no different. But how do real-life families deal with kids when they get out of hand? As Stossel reports, yelling at the kids is a daily routine for many families, including the Simme family of Buffalo, NY, who allowed "20/20" to put hidden cameras in their home to capture some of these yelling moments. "I look psychotic... I wouldn't want to live there," says Patti Simme, mother of four, after seeing herself. Experts say that yelling at kids can contribute to a lifetime of troubled relationships. Can advice from parenting educator Barbara Coloroso, author of Kids Are Worth It, have a positive impact on the Simmes and other families?

Swinging - So how do some couples keep their marriages from becoming desperate? Stossel reports on millions of American couples who participate in the lifestyle known as 'swinging,' in which couples have sex with other couples and it's all out in the open. "They see it as consensual co-marital sex, and something that they're doing in order to spice up their own relationships," says journalist Terry Gould, who spent three years researching this lifestyle and the people in it and who has written a book on it. There are swingers clubs, vacation spots and even national conventions. Swingers whom "20/20" spoke with said their marriages are stronger because they don't have affairs and don't lie to each other.

"20/20" is anchored by Elizabeth Vargas and John Stossel. David Sloan is the executive producer.

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