The Young Family (U.K.)

The Young Family is the ninth episode of series 2 of the British Supernanny TV show.

Episode Summary
"Supernanny Jo Frost is called in to tame the Young family of five boys. With so many kids in the house, it’s a case of mob rule, and the parents are desperate for help. In an attempt to restore order, Supernanny introduces a Reward Tower and gives the boys Naughty Stools. She also helps to improve communication between Mum and Dad. But can she reign in these renegades?"- Channel 4 website

Paul the hypocrite and the allegations
During the Test run, the family turned back to corporal punishment. As Paul said he wouldn’t hit Caleb, yet according to Caleb, hit him anyway with a slipper. Paul is usually called a hypocrite, due to this. Sue also did a similar thing, when Nathaniel began to bother her instead of sending him to timeout. She ended up getting a wooden spoon and slapped Nathaniel on his butt, before yelling at him, saying "Do not abuse me like that! I'm your mother and you should give me some respect!" Unlike Paul, however, Sue didn’t say or do anything hypocritical, as she had hit Nathaniel on purpose.

After the episode, The children's behavior began to get worse and is clearly due to Sue and Paul. However, the people likely to blame for this, are the producers. According to various news articles, they allegedly told the boys to act out and misbehave. It was also alleged they made the boys punch holes in the walls with Umbrellas and it was also shown they spat in Sue’s face in the episode. Due to this, the family and the producers were criticized heavily, with many saying Jo should’ve given up on helping the young altogether.

The Fire
One of the two more recent controversies/incidents and the most well-known one this family caused was with Joel. On February 10th, 2007, many news articles reported that the now 3, Joel started a fire with a kitchen lighter that, Sue tried putting out, only to make the fire worse. At the time, the other boys who were now 11 (Nathaniel), 10 (Caleb), 8 (Benjamin), and 6 (Jacob) were in school and didn’t find out about the fire until they got back. The house was revealed to have ended up in such horrible condition the family had to live in a hotel. News articles featured Sue and Paul complaining and heavily criticizing the show blaming it for deteriorating the kid's behavior. The episode would end up being both a part of and the gaslight of the ongoing Channel 4 controversy at the time, that the program was "rigged" (Channel 4 has since debunked this rumor).


 * Supernanny kid set fire to own house after a visit from tv expert - England Standard, 10/2/2007
 * Family who got on with Supernanny like a house on fire- Daily Mail, 10/3/2007
 * Supernanny kid sets fire to home- TMZ, 10/2/2007
 * Supernanny star 3 set fire to his home- Express.co.uk, 10/3/2007. In this article, we learn that Paul and Sue separated in the Summer of 2007 but it is unknown why
 * TV Nanny kid burns house-Daily Star, 10/3/2007

Jacob’s arrest

The most recent case involving the family happened in January of 2020. Where Jacob was announced to have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for theft, violence, and rape, making him the first-ever Supernanny kid to be arrested. In court, the now 53-year-old Sue was seen defending Jacob. These articles also mention the 2007 fire and the Supernanny episode. However, fans still agree that Sue, Paul, and the producers were responsible for Jacob's arrest since as mentioned before, they are all at fault here. With Sue and Paul’s use of hitting the boys with objects, and the producers alleged instigating


 * Teenage boy who appeared on Supernanny rape choked woman until she was unconscious-The Sun.co.uk, 01/17/2020
 * Boy who appeared on Supernanny detained for rape- BBC, 01/17/2020
 * Teen who starred-Supernanny aged 3 stalked women before raping and choking her-Dailystar.co.uk, 01/18/20

Behind the scenes
This was filmed in April 2005.

Trivia

 * Sue and Paul divorced in the Summer of 2007 the same year Joel burned down the house.
 * Sue claims that the boy's behavior became worse after the program. It was also revealed the producers told the boys to play up and cry for the show. This has lead to the most prominent theory in the Supernanny community. Which theorizes that most tantrums and outbursts are staged and are caused by the production team for entertainment and drama.
 * This was the first episode to involve corporal punishment.
 * The family now resides in Ipswich.
 * As of now, this is the largest family on Supernanny UK. Previously The Collins Family and The Pandit Family took that record with 4 children each. Coincidentally, all these episodes are lost aside from The Collins Family's US airings from the first season of the American version of Supernanny.
 * This is the only family Jo helped that didn’t help the kids change. This predates families she failed before like The Hillhouse-Docherty Family. Arguably making this the first time in Supernanny history, where Jo failed.
 * This episode was excluded when Supernanny UK came to HBO Max most likely due to the controversies it caused.
 * Before Jacob was arrested, He was working at a local McDonald's.
 * Susan and Paul are on shaky ground as in England it's illegal to hit children with things such as slippers, or in the episode's case, wooden spoons, and because this was aired on live television, this only made things worse for them.
 * In one of the articles, Sue said "Supernanny was crap.” This seems to imply that she had turned on Jo and the producers, due to either the fire or the episode. Or she is implying that Jo herself was crap.
 * This has led some fans to believe that Jo may not be what she acts out to be off-camera whilst filming episodes, and could’ve had something to do with helping the producers in their instigation. Some have even said that this could’ve transferred to other episodes of both the UK and US series. Which has made some of them, go as far as to claim that Jo’s the true villain of the entire franchise. Due to multiple things,
 * The reasons include: The theory of her helping the producers instigate the boys, not reporting abusive parents to authorities and just dealing with them herself, and her alledged racism to The Spivey Family in Jo Frost: Nanny on Tour, for reporting them to authorities, yet not the other abusive parents (This is because the Spivey’s are a black family. And due to it being unknown if Chris (The Father) hit his autistic son, Marcus with his belt. Which is why Jo reported the family to authorities)
 * Sue claims that the boys got bullied after the episode.

Pop Culture

 * Caleb and Jacob are seen eating Walker's crisps in the Family Test Run which is an extremely popular and successful brand of crisps in the UK.