The Weston Family

The Weston Family is the fifth episode of Season 1 of the American Supernanny show.

Synopsis
While Andrea and Fred have adjusted to their life as parents after having kids, they are having trouble when it comes to raising their older son, Andrew. In the house, Andrew disrespects his parents and constantly torments his baby brother because he is jealous of Sean. In addition, his behavior is so aggressive and out of control, that he has been constantly expelled from day care and Andrea and Fred are having trouble finding one that will take him.

Playing with his friends is no different, since he was noted to bully and intimidate his friends whenever they're over on a play date. Dinner time is a disaster since Andrew refuses to eat his dinner most of the time. At night, he is constantly playing games at bed time with his mother, which prevents Sean from sleeping. Andrea and Fred state that they need to get their act together, so that Sean does not wind up like Andrew.

Recap
Also see the recap at Fans of Reality TV

Submission reel
The submission reel introduces Andrea, Fred, their oldest son, Andrew (4 years old) and their baby, Sean (11 months). In the reel, Andrea and Fred explain that while they adjusted to life with children, it is hard raising their older son, Andrew who they noted has a reputation of a bully. In addition, they stated that out of jealousy he often terrorizes his little brother, Sean and time outs don't work for him. Andrea also states that Andrew has been kicked out of daycare because of his aggressive behavior and his parents haven't found another preschool willing to take him. Meanwhile, dinner time and bed time are both disastrous. At dinner time, Andrew will outright refuse to eat his dinner if he's not being served his favorite foods, and at bedtime, he will constantly play bedtime games with his mother, which upsets and wakes up Sean.

Observation
When Jo arrives at their home, Andrew is calm and his parents are very welcoming. However, once Andrew plays with a water hose in the backyard, Jo instantly gets to see his aggression. When Andrea tells him to turn the water off he refuses so she does it herself. Andrew begins to throw around lawn furniture and toys. When Andrea approaches him, he runs away which causes Andrea to threaten him with a long time out in his room. Andrew eventually listens to his mother, but calls her "poo-poo."

Later, Andrew's friend Anaya comes over for a playdate. It starts off okay, but goes downhill when Andrew draws on the table and blames it on his friend. Little Anaya quickly points out that she did not, so Andrew scribbles on her picture until Anaya runs to her parents, and her father instructs her to tell Andrew not to do that. She however does not even have a chance to do so as in a fit of anger Andrew scribbles on her picture again as soon as she comes back to the table, making her attack Andrew and cry to her parents once more. Later, Anaya tried to build with Andrew's blocks, but Andrew gets angry. So he grabs her face in an extremely rough manner, causing Anaya to push Andrew and be sent to tears a third time. Anaya's mom steps in and wants Andrew and Anaya to play together nicely. Ten minutes later, Andrew is throwing blocks at Anaya. Eventually, Andrea steps in and Andrew gets put into a "time out" in his and Sean's room. However, Jo notices that this does not work since Andrew leaves his room and Andrea just holds him still to keep him there.

At dinnertime, Andrew refuses to eat a hot dog for half an hour. At bedtime, Andrew becomes hyperactive and roughhouses with Sean. When Andrea tucks them in and Jo says goodnight to the boys Andrew tells her to go home which makes Jo laugh. Andrew makes countless excuses as to why he cannot go to bed. He keeps running out of the room to turn on the hallway light. Because of Andrew's bedtime games, Sean isn't able to sleep either.

Parent meeting
At the parents meeting, Jo starts of by praising Fred and Andrea for knowing a lot about Andrew and Sean, but then goes on to ask where their control started to slip. saying they know Andrew manipulates them and asks why they allow it to happen, Andrea states that she just thinks having a child is challenging.

Jo then goes on to explain why she think Andrew's behavior concerns her saying He's very aggressive and over powering to his friends such as Anaya, whom he tormented during their playdate by throwing toys and shouting at her. Jo explains that Andrea and Fred need to teach Andrew how to play nicely with his friends, saying he wont know unless they do.

Andrea then says she doesn't want to see her kid struggle, Jo does say the couple are giving Andrew love, praise and encouragement, but have to balance that, with Andrea stating that's where She and Fred ended up failing.

Jo then states she doesn't think it's all about failing and tells them to not just sit there and feel like failures, because no parent is perfect. She then goes on to ask Andrea and Fred if they are committed to give a new plan of discipline to Andrew, which they agree on as Jo states that she is ready to work with them.

Teaching
Jo begins her teaching by bringing in her usual Family Schedule, since according to her, Andrew and Sean need to be put in a constant routine. Jo then introduces a new discipline technique (Naughty Spot). Afterwards, Andrew begins to choke Sean, but Jo gets him off and tells Andrew not to do that to Sean because he's only a baby, but Andrew laughs it off and says that he's a big boy. Eventually, after Andrew continued to torment Sean, Andrea placed him on the Naughty Spot (or Wall, as Andrea calls it). Andrew was then seen getting up from it, but Jo manages to scare him back. Eventually, Andrew relented and apologized to Sean.

Jo then introduces the Shared Play technique so Andrew will stop being aggressive to his friends. They implement this with Andrew's friend Marnie. Andrew listened to Jo, and for the first time ever, Andrew played nicely with one of his friends.

At lunch, Andrea is trying to feed Sean, but Andrew started to throw a massive temper tantrum (while holding a SpongeBob sippy cup) over wanting his chocolate milk warmed up. This interfered with Sean's lunch, and soon enough, they both began to cry uncontrollably, Fred entered and was in shock, telling Jo he never saw his kids like this. Andrew eventually hit Andrea, which got him a one-way ticket to the Naughty Spot. Four minutes later, Andrea got him of it and pacified him, but Jo told her to put Andrew down (which she did).

Next comes dinner, which for Andrew, is chicken. In order to help Andrea have Andrew eat his chicken, she implements the Good Eater technique. After four chicken bites, Andrew ate his dinner for the first time.

Jo later explains how Andrew and Sean won't get to sleep in the same room. so to resolve this, she, Andrea, Fred and Andrew all helped put Sean in his own room to sleep in; she then implements the Stay In Bed technique so Andrew will stop coming out with an excuse. His first time out of bed wasn't an excuse, however; he woke up to tell Andrea that his pet baby hamster (which was nocturnal) started running in his Wheel, so Andrea came and took the hamster’s cage out of Andrew’s room. He then went through his usual excuses, but Andrea kept putting him back in bed until he went to sleep. Jo then left the Westons for a few days.

Family Test Run.
The test run gets of to a Good Start at lunchtime, as Andrea used the Good Eater technique, which Jo praised. However, Andrew then began hitting Sean and screaming at him, so Andrea said if he did it one more time he would go on the Naughty Spot, and Andrew called her a "poo-poo head". Andrea took him to the spot, but didn't tell Andrew to sit there for four minutes, instead telling him to ask her when he is ready. "Don't ask him, tell him how long he's got to stay there for", Jo stated. Andrew continued to get off it, and to Jo's shock, Andrea asked Andrew if he was ready.

Later on, Andrea and Fred tried to get Andrew to play with Sean, which Jo praised them for. Unfortunately Andrew messed up the game, so he had to go on the Naughty Spot again. Andrea explains that she knows her kids will grow up, but she's worried that wont be the case with Andrew, and when Andrea told him to stay put, he angrily screamed at Andrea, copying what she said. Jo points this out and states that Andrew is back in control.

Eventually Andrew kept misbehaving and put on the Naughty Spot, Andrea stated that she would give Jo a run for her techniques, but eventually he began to cry, Fred is worried about this because he and Andrea had to get their act together, otherwise as Sean gets older, he could end up exactly like Andrew.

Parents Evaluation.
Jo returns to the Weston home to review Andrea and Fred's mistakes that they made whilst she was gone.

Reinforcement.
Jo starts off the reinforcement by re-introducing Andrea to The Good Eater technique and how it works. As expected, Andrew does eat his dinner, and Jo also successfully gets Andrew to play fair with baby Sean.

Fred says that Andrew is aggressive, and according to him, it will take every ounce of discipline in order to make him realize he isn't the center of the world and that other kids sometimes want to do different things. During clips of Andrew playing with his friends, Andrea says that Andrew will soon learn how to interact with them in a better manner. A scene is then shown where Fred heads to the Naughty Spot to ask Andrew to apologize for not listening to him.

At bedtime, Andrea tells Jo to come to Andrew's room, and in a short scene, Andrew can be heard snoring. After that, a scene is played of Sean taking his first steps and the family celebrating. With Jo's work done, she has successfully helped her fifth American family and leaves the Westons.

Pop Culture.

 * Andrew was seen holding a SpongeBob SquarePants sippy cup when wanting his chocolate milk warmed up.
 * A Figure of Astro Boy can be seen when Andrew was knocking down Anaya’s Lego tower.
 * Picture frames of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck appear inside of Andrew’s room. Additionally, stickers of the two of them and Goofy appear on the front of Andrew’s door.

Behind The Scenes
This was filmed in July-August 2004.

Events Post-Episode
Andrew’s Hamster passed away 2-4 Years later, depending on what breed it was.

Trivia

 * This is the first episode to air on a holiday, as it originally aired on Valentine's Day.
 * When Andrew first kicks off during the observation, a random woman holding her baby can be seen watching in the background.
 * The episode is considered one of the best Supernanny episodes.