The Hancox-Smith Family

The Hancox-Smith Family is the first episode of series 5 of the British Supernanny show.

Sypnopsis
"Supernanny's first port of call is Liverpool, home to the Hancox-Smith family.

Parents Jenny and Simon are fighting a losing battle with all of their three children.

The baby of the family has a vice like grip over Mum. Madison is almost three, but she still demands breastmilk or what she calls “mimi” - on tap, morning, noon and night. Despite having a bedroom of her own, Madie has always slept in Jenny’s bed – whilst dad beds down with the boys The couple haven’t slept in the same bed for five years!

Mum and daughter can’t bear to be apart - whilst eight year old Cameron and five year old Flynn can’t bear to be together. They’ve been kicking, punching and swearing their way into Mum & Dad’s bad books for years. Car journeys are a battleground – fraught with danger as the boys refuse to wear seatbelts and are at each other’s throats.

Supernanny has 19 years of experience in tackling a multitude of family misfortunes….

But can she get Madie off the “mimi”, the boys to tow the line? And get Dad back in the marital bed?

Or could Mum and Dad’s tempers prove the biggest challenge?" - supernanny.co.uk

Observation
Supernanny visits the Hancox-Smith family and as she observes it's time for Jenny to take her kids shopping, The kids sit down in the car, but the boys are fighting a little bit and Maddie throws a fit over Jenny putting her seatbelt on. 40 minutes pass and the family hasn't left. Jenny and the kids can leave. But Maddie continues her tantrum and hits Flynn in the face, making him cry. Then Maddie started to settle down a bit but she was still crying. No sooner had Flynn got smacked, both boys’ fight got worse. They are fighting aggressively and screaming.

Jo in and tells Jenny that she could've seen her kids acting up in her back mirror, but she doesn't have one. As Jenny continues the journey, Flynn begins moaning, because he also hates seatbelts. Jo sees that Flynn isn't wearing his seatbelt. When she sees the traffic lights, she stops her car, tells the other cars to wait and tells Jenny to put her son's seatbelt on. When Jenny continues the journey once more, and the boys carried on fighting. Jenny is fed up with dealing with her screaming children and stops the car to cry, as Jo comforts her. After that, Jenny has finished her destination to the shops, but it has taken over 90 minutes to complete it. When the family gets home, Flynn kicks off and is confronted by Jenny. When Flynn throws a Winnie the Pooh Playtray by Ravensburger, Jenny tells him to pick up the puzzle pieces, but he refuses, and Jenny drags him upstairs to the boys' bedroom. As Flynn screams, he tells his mother that he hates Jo and calls her names. Jenny leaves Simon to take care of Flynn, who is still acting up. During bedtime, Jo sees that Jenny sleeps with Madison, who is still feeding and Simon sleeps with the boys.

Family Test Run
2 days after Supernanny left, Flynn starts to misbehave after refusing to come to the car so Jenny can take all of their children to school, but he gets in the car after Jenny warns Flynn that he will lose his privileges if he doesn't get in the car. Later that day, after running off down a road, Simon catches Flynn and carries him back home and places him in the Naughty Point. Flynn makes an announcement wishing he was dead because everyone else are "fat f****rs" while in timeout. Instead of the battle over bedtime, Madison is happy to sleep in her bed, and while Flynn is asleep, Cameron acts up in the night. The next day, Cameron continues to become disrespectful and curses at his parents over his privileges of Football and Portable Game Consoles being revoked (possibly as punishment for his behavior the previous night). This leads to Simon placing Cameron in the Naughty Point and fights with him. Simon has Cameron pinned to the wall while Cameron tells him to get off, but as Simon leaves him in timeout, Cameron says "I wish you were, f*****g, were dead". As the days pass, Cameron tells Jenny to hurry up before he's late for school and after his mother curses at him, he pours orange juice at the front door to get his mum's attention. At the end of the week, Simon helps Cameron to get ready for his school dance, but he refuses to wear jeans. When Simon gets the jeans on Cameron, he orders Simon to take the jeans off him and begins crying and screaming, then he aggressively shoves Simon's arm away and calls him an idiot. When Jenny enters the boys' bedroom, she and Simon have a brief argument over whether Cameron is really in pain from having the jeans on him or not and Simon leaves the boys' bedroom, telling Jenny that she "destroyed the whole thing". When Jenny is left to take care of Flynn and Cameron, her son resumes his fit when Jenny tells him that it's too late for Cameron to go to his school dance. Cameron starts to cry and scream then Jenny slaps Cameron on the mouth, making him scream in pain even harder. This is the worst scene that Jo has ever seen and the footage has left Jenny devastated. Jo is livid and tells the parents they both need anger management classes.

Trivia
This episode is heavily criticized because of the scene where Jenny smacked Cameron on the mouth.

Behind the Scenes
This was filmed in April-May 2008.

Links

 * Episode summary on supernanny.co.uk