In honor of what would have been Lucille Ball's 100th birthday (August 6, 2011), we're taking a long...

1. Memory Lane: Preparing for baby on ‘I Love Lucy’ -
National TV Moms
In honor of what would have been Lucille Ball's 100th birthday (August 6, 2011), we're taking a long
trip down memory lane today and it has us looking back at a fabulous episode of I Love Lucy, Lucy
Hires an English Tutor. This episode has the magnificent comedic duo of Lucille Ball as Lucy and
Desi Arnez as Ricky coping with worries that often crop up before baby is born when parents start
panicking under the weight of what being a parent actually means.
Watch the episode, Lucy Hires an English Tutor
You know how it is: for nine months you and your significant other watch with excitement as your
belly grows and for mom, she gets to feel every movement and there's this wonderful feeling of
having that life becoming inside of you. However, all of those warm and fuzzy feelings tend to give
way to some measure of panic, as it did for Lucy in the episode, Lucy Hires an English Tutor.
For Lucy the source of that concern came from thinking about all the things you have to know as a
parent:
"It's a big responsibility having a baby and bringing up a child. You know all the questions they
tutoring services ask. You have to give them the right answer, too. Gee, I don't know if I'm going to
be able to do it."
What initially set Lucy down her well-intentioned path of hilarity was a discussion she and Ricky
were having about where the baby would go to college one day. It had Lucy thinking of all those
questions. Following is the exchange between Ricky and Lucy.
Lucy: You know the kind of questions children ask. Suppose our child asks something simple like,
"Mommy where does rain come from?" "Where does rain come from? Well, I don't know dear, your
mommy's a dumbbell."
Ricky: "Oh honey, you're just being ridiculous."
Lucy: "I am not. Of course there is always one good answer: 'Ask your daddy dear, he can explain it
better than I can.'"
Lucy (as a child): "Daddy, where does rain come from?"
Ricky: "Well dear, it's very simple. You see, the water...Well, first of all there are the clouds, see. And
the clou...The moisture in the air..."
Lucy: "See what I mean, we have to do something about this."
From there Lucy submerges herself in books and reading and becomes determined that her child
will hear nothing but perfect English. As a result, she hires a tutor to provide lessons for herself,
Ricky, and Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley, Vivian Vance). Fred and Ethel get tossed into the
mix as they will often be around baby Ricardo.
Ricky is resistant to the tutoring at first, but Lucy informs him that he

2. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shanefulmer.algebratutor has a bit of an accent
and it can be difficult to understand him at times. When he questions her ability to understand him,
Lucy tells him that "I've learned to listen with an accent."
Hans Conried guest stars as the oh so proper English tutor, Percy Livermore. He is hilariously
appalled at the "state of emergency" that is this group's pronunciation issues.
While most parents probably don't go to the extremes that Lucy went to in this episode, she is
inarguably off to a fantastic start to parenting by putting her child's needs at the forefront. Heading
into motherhood, Lucy most definitely is passing with flying colors on our parenting report card.
Lucy Hires an English Tutor originally aired on December 29, 1952 on CBS, according to IMDb. You
can catch reruns of I Love Lucy on the Hallmark Channel.
Don't miss out on any of our TV mom lessons and moments; hit the subscribe button following this
article to receive free e-mail notifications. You can also keep up with me on Facebook, Twitter
@TVMoms101, and GoogleBuzz.