RHONJ: Child's Tantrum Leads to Field Day Fiasco

This week’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” centered on, of all things, a tantrum thrown by an 11-year-old. This may seem fairly run-of-the-mill for an adolescent girl, but of course, in Jersey, it blows up, resulting in an adult-centered tantrum.

Gia Giudice has grown up on camera, and clearly feels very comfortable around them. She seems to have no qualms, for example, asking her mother to go bra shopping with her in front of her three younger sisters, a camera crew, and Bravo’s late-night audience.

“I can’t believe I’m talking about this because my parents are old school and my mom never talked about any of that,” Teresa said.

She tells Gia she does not need a bra, but Gia insists that she does. When Teresa tells her husband, Joe, about the request, he tells Gia “You take after your mother; you have nothing.”

Despite her obvious discomfort, Teresa tells her daughter she will take her.

“She doesn’t need a bra, but a lot of her friends are wearing bras…[and] whatever, if she wants it, and it makes her feel better, not a problem.”

The ensuing bra shopping scene is adorable, but not nearly as interesting as what happens next.

The main event this episode is Jacqueline Laurita’s Field Day. Laurita has set up old school carnival games in her backyard and her family, the Wakiles, Gorgas, Manzos and Giudices, accompanied by other assorted friends, compete in traditional games like sack races and tug-of-war.

In addition to being comfortable with the cameras, Gia clearly has a great deal of knowledge about the main plotlines, which for two seasons have been her mother and “Zio Joe” fighting constantly. When Joe Gorga pulls her aside to apologize for , Gia does not accept his apology lightly.

“We will make up,” Gorga says.

“When?” Gia asks. “When you guys talk or something, I don’t want no arguing.”

“She has the maturity to understand what’s happening,” Kathy Wakile says of her cousin’s oldest daughter, “but not the maturity to understand why it’s happening that way.”

Despite the tension left over from last week’s brutal fight between Teresa and Joe, and Jacqueline’s growing frustration with Teresa after discovering yet another lie she told about her relationship with the Gorgas, the Field Day seems to be going really well.

“It’s crazy to see everyone getting along great,” says Caroline Manzo, who has appointed herself scorekeeper, “because they’re not thinking about the nonsense. They’ve let their guard down and they like each other. But you can’t have a tug-of-war every day.”

Melissa Gorga, Joe and Teresa all end up on the blue team while Gia is on the red team. Gia gets increasingly upset when she believes the other team is cheating.

“Dang Gia’s competitive. Where does she get that?” Jacqueline says sarcastically.

Even Teresa, famous for always defending her kids, admits, “You think I’m competitive? Gia is 10 times more competitive.”

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Eventually it is no longer fun for Gia, though, who bursts into tears and isolates herself in a room. Jacqueline and Caroline follow, and try to get her to rejoin the fun. Gia insists that her mother needs to come in and talk to her.

“You don’t need for everyone to pay attention to you,” Manzo says.

Whether she needs it or not, it does appear that the party has stopped because of the tantrum. While most people seem to think that this is part of being eleven, Lauren Manzo is quite done.

“When we have family parties with just our families and don’t include any other families, we don’t fight!” she says.

Considering her mother admitted on last season’s reunion that she is not speaking to her sister, former housewife Dina Manzo, this is an interesting statement.

Laurita, meanwhile, tries to read Gia a picture book about being a poor sport. Gia is clearly overwhelmed and cries even harder when her mother arrives.

“Mom, I don’t want anyone here but you!” she says.

At first, it seems like Teresa is going the typical parent route, by telling Gia that the cheating and trash talk was all in good fun and she has to listen when an adult speaks to her. But eventually she tells Caroline and Jacqueline that no one is allowed to reprimand her daughter but her.

Even though they insist that’s not what they were doing, Teresa says, “I don’t get involved with anyone else’s kid; don’t get involved with mine.”

When they say Gia was upset she didn’t get to go down the shore with her father and sisters, Teresa says “Not like I’m having that good a time either; I’d rather be down the shore.”

This leads to more lively discussion between the three housewives. Laurita is obviously offended by the comment, and Giudice tries to cover it by saying she was trying to show that she’s a team player.

Meanwhile, Kathy Wakile, who Christopher Manzo described as “made of porcelain and rainbows and the laughter of a child,” manages to make Gia smile.

In the end, everyone is able to put on a happy face for the awarding of the prize: a giant block of provolone.