The Duan-Ahn Family

The Duan-Ahn Family is the fourth episode of Season 4 of the American Supernanny show.

Episode summary
Jo visits the Duan-Ahn family in San Francisco, California where dentists Angela An (41) and Forrest Duan (51), have 5 children: 9-year-old Christopher, 8-year-old Isabella, 6-year-old twins Lawrence and Benjamin and 5-year-old Charlotte. When Jo meets the family, she tackles an issue millions of Asian Americans deal with every day: over-scheduling.

With the parents exposing their kids to various lessons and activities such as Chinese school, scouts, art, golf, tennis, soccer, ballet, piano, violin, drums, math, writing workshop, chess, skating the days are incredibly hectic for the family.

The kids sometimes eat dinner in the van, and by the time they get home and finished their homework, it's way past their bedtime. Occasionally, the kids are so tired that their homework might not even get done, and the kids are worried that it won't even get finished on time.

The kids never get a chance to be with their friends or spend time together as a family and are so stressed, they act out by acting physically aggressive, talking back and teasing.

Angela's relationship with her children is strained due to their behavior and she's so stressed from driving around all day, that she has no energy to enforce any discipline in the house or watch what's on the road as she's driving.

Angela and Forrest are so overwhelmed with their children's behavior, they've stayed away from their newly built home for three years, and are scared that the children are going to wreck the new house just like their current home.

Can Jo help this family create a better schedule and get them into their new home?

Observation
Jo arrives at the house Forrest answers the door and compliments her teeth causing lots of laughter. Angela and Jo went to go pick up all 5 kids. Once in the car they refuse to buckle up and behave, instead fighting and screaming. Angela yells at the kids and tries to distract them with a box of pears. Only to backfire with the kids throwing pears at each other after a 15 minute battle. Jo comments on the kids beings overscheduled in a voiceover.

On the drive to one of the activities the Christopher started arguing with Isabella, spitting in her face. Christopher's responds with "I kept my hands to myself". Angela tells Isabella to "Just Ignore him". The kids start to riot and mock Angela. Jo asks "I am just wondering how much time do you spend looking in your rear mirror, but how much time do you spend looking on the road".

Later on, when the kids get home Angela finds them playing with shaving cream in the bathroom. Angela struggles to control the kids and gives up, Jo talks to Angela about how she feels. In the evening the kids are trying to complete their homework while Angela expresses to Jo that she wants the kids in bed by 8:00PM. Jo also talks with Christopher about how overscheduled and stressed he is. Jo claims that "Seeing the kids having so much work and activities after school was taking a toll on the kids". At 9:00pm Forrest comes home and the kids are happy as he becomes the jungle gym. Benjamin gets hurt and starts crying while Angela battles with the other kids to get homework done. Forrest tells Jo that he wants to spend more time with the kids, then Forrest goes upstairs to work. It's 10:00pm and Jo decides to leave for the day.

Parent Meeting
Jo discusses the behaviour from the kids she claims that "They won't listen, they smart mouth, they have attitude, they hit, they punch." Jo says that the car journeys are chaos and it turned her stomach when Christopher spat in Isabella's face. At this point Angela is in tears. Jo now goes on to Forrest and says that despite him wanting to spend time with all 5 of his kids she asks Forrest what he is giving emotionally, Forrest says ¨I try to give them as much love as I can¨

Behind The Scenes
This episode was filmed in June 2007.

Trivia

 * Isabella was absent when Jo was going through the House Rules. No reason is given for her absence.
 * This is one of the few Asian-American families Jo helped.

Transcript

 * The An-Duan Family/Transcript

Family members

 * Forrest Duan, 51
 * Angela An, 41
 * Christopher, 9 (born January 23, 1998)
 * Isabella, 8 (born February 17, 1999)
 * Lawrence and Benjamin, 6 (born March 19, 2001)
 * Charlotte, 5 (born April 12, 2002)
 * Unnamed Grandmother