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"With the cost of living now, most moms can't afford to stay home for very long," said Mrs. Ferraro, who formerly worked in the Brookfield controller's office and also was a student teacher at Center Elementary School.
She said that counselors who have appeared on the show, which debuted last May on Comcast Cable in Danbury, have said that parents need to find time to do activities away from their children.
"It changed my life in a great way but also in a way that I wasn't prepared for," Mrs. Ferraro said regarding the birth of her first child, Shawna, 16 months ago.
She said that she and her husband, Jason, a former teacher who is now a police officer in New Canaan, immediately discovered that they had less time for activities by themselves.
Mrs. Ferraro is on a maternity leave from her position as a technology specialist for the Bedford school district in New York state.
The Ridgefield resident has a bachelor's and master's degree from Western Connecticut State University in Danbury and a fifth-year certificate from Fordham University in New York City.
"Being a mom is the hardest job on the planet," Mrs. Ferraro stated in a news release for the show.
"Babies do not come with a set of instructions and what works for one may not work for another," she added.
Initially, the show aired in just Danbury, Bethel and Ridgefield. However, over the last eight months several other cable outlets have started airing "Moms Gone Mad" and it is now seen in about 200 municipalities through Connecticut and New York state.
Mrs. Ferraro, who had previously co-hosted a local cable television show, said that as executive producer and co-host she devotes about 25 hours a week to "Moms Gone Mad," which airs three times a month. She volunteers all of her time, although she noted that she is preparing to "make a pitch" to some commercial stations.
In addition to scheduling guests, she has trained some of the technical crew members.
It takes about three hours to tape all of the segments for each 60-minute broadcast.
"It's been a big undertaking, but when I talked to my husband about it, he said that since I wasn't teaching right now and I had the time that I should go for it," she said.
Mrs. Ferraro said that her work in the Brookfield controller's office has been helpful in her teaching career and in producing the show since she learned interpersonal skills that often aren't utilized as much in college curriculums, where the classes are often very theoretical.
Mrs. Ferraro co-hosts the show with her sister, Annrose Fluskey, a Danbury resident who has two children and also teaches in Bedford.
Typically, they open each installment with a discussion of issues in their own homes.
They then interview guests on topics ranging from marriage counseling to parental sleep deprivation to issues related to raising teen-agers.
Brookfield Probate Judge Joseph Secola will discuss the importance of parents' writing a will for their children on the show that will air Monday at 12:30 p.m. and Thursday at 9 p.m. on channel 21.
Mr. Secola said in a phone interview that parents should establish a will while their children are infants in the event that both of them perish. Also, he said that sometimes children from a first marriage might not receive any consideration upon the death of a parent if they are not named in a will.
In that same show, Mr. Ferraro will demonstrate how to install a child safety seat in a car.
Mrs. Ferraro said that she has received several e-mail messages from parents on issues related to their teen-agers.
She said that although teen-agers have reached a juncture where they are becoming more independent, they also have to be supervised and in many cases want an "adult to set the parameters.
"Some parents want to be a friend," Mrs. Ferraro added. "However, it is important that the parent remain a parent."
She said that too often on weekdays between 4 and 6 p.m. teens "hang out with their friends and get in trouble."
In the final segment, Mrs. Ferraro and Ms. Fluskey show a photograph of their cutest kid of the week from the entries that are e-mailed by viewers.
"People take such pride in seeing their child's picture on television," she said. "You never can praise someone's children too much."
The co-hosts also answer their question of the week and show videos submitted by parents of their child doing "the cutest thing."
"One of the things that I learned is that it is hard to take a break from being a mom," Mrs. Ferraro said. "There are a lot of hardships that go along with being a parent, and those topics aren't talked about much."
