The Cantoni Family

The Cantoni Family is the fourteenth episode of Season 3 of the American Supernanny show.

Episode summary
Nanny Jo travels to Naugatuck, Connecticut to help the Cantoni Family. Nina (34), a completely overwhelmed and a disciplinarian mother and Paul (32), a father who gives into the bossiness of their three children. Giana (1), Gabrielle (3) and Nicholas (6). Nicholas doesn't take his parents seriously, talks back and says inappropriate words and Gabrielle throws tantrums to get her own way and acts very bossy until she does.

Submission reel
Jo is in Naugatuck Connecticut this Week helping the Cantoni Family. The Family includes Nina (34) and Paul (32) and their 3 Kids, Nicolas (6) Gabrielle (3) and Giana (1). The main issue with Gabi is that she's very bossy and for a 3 year old talks back a lot, even refusing to wear diapers. According to Nina the whole world is about Gabi.

As for Nicholas his backtalking is way worse than Gabrielle's, he even makes inappropriate jokes shown by a scene where he wants Giana to "Make more stinks". (Stinks as in farting)

Both Nina and Paul are on opposite teams, Nina yells a lot more than Paul does. According to Paul, he's good cop and Nina's the bad cop.

Bedtime is a nightmare, as Gabi is out many times and sometimes entirely refuses to stay in bed.

Observation
When Jo arrives, she introduces herself to Nina and the kids (Except Gabi who hangs onto Nina), It's also revealed that Nina has a black cast on her arm because two years ago she broke it in a car accident. Jo tells Nina that she'll be observing her and the rest of the family them and see how they deal with the children.

Soon, Gabrielle hits her mother. She threatens to put her in time out. Then she asks her if she wants to have a pretend tea party. Later, Nina needs to change Gabrielle's pull up. Gabrielle does not want a pull up, so she throws a temper tantrum and yells that she wants daddy. This is because she knows that Paul will give in and take the pull up off. Soon, Paul arrives home and ends up taking the pull up off, knowing that Gabrielle will throw a temper tantrum in response to Nina. Frustrated, Nina throws the pull up on her bed. Then 2 hours later Nina takes off Gabrielle’s underwear and finally puts the princess pull up on Gabrielle.

Soon, it's dinner time. Nicolas tries to get Giana to pass gas so he can get attention and spits food on Paul's plate. Nina calls him out on his behaviour. Paul does nothing about it. Later, it is bedtime. Gabrielle keeps getting out of her bed, telling her dad she wants juice and milk, knowing he will give in. Paul keeps having to run down the stairs to pour the drinks for her. While this happens, Nina cries and tells Jo she is overwhelmed.

Parents meeting
The parents meeting has Jo confront Nina and Paul about Gabi and Nicolas' behaviour. It is also revealed that due to the fact Nina isn't backed up, instead she's short tempered.

Teaching
Jo begins as usual by bringing in her Regular Family Schedule, She also brings in a Booster Web Chart to give Nicholas a series of tasks to accomplish, to build in opportunities for his parents to boost him up with praise. Jo challenges Nicholas to change his negative behaviour by showing him that he cannot get attention by negative behaviour. Jo shows the parents how to have more quality time with Nicolas by having him do a puzzle.

Later, Gabrielle throws another temper tantrum because she wants her dad to pick her up. Jo says Gabrielle is used to getting her own way when she throws a temper tantrum. Gabrielle bangs her head on the floor continuously, so Jo tells the parents to ignore her. Gabrielle bites her dad while she is shouting at him. Jo tells Paul to give her a warning in a proper way and Paul abides. Gabrielle ignores the warning and keeps screaming and shouting. Jo has him place her on the ottoman for three minutes after explaining to Gabrielle why. However, Gabrielle keeps trying to flee. Paul keeps putting her on the ottoman and wins. Three minutes later, Paul explains why Gabrielle was placed on the ottoman and demands an apology from her. Gabrielle apologizes and Paul picks her up and gives her a hug and a kiss.

Jo then has Paul and Nina do "Step Up Step Back." This means they sit together and agree on who needs to step up and who needs to step back. Things began normally as they agree on many things but while they go through their differences, Nina feels like Paul is blaming her for all the problems and begins having a Breakdown. Jo gave an example: Nina needs to step back and give a warning before giving discipline. Meanwhile, Paul needs to step up and only give one warning, then give discipline.

Later, it is bedtime. Jo teaches Paul a bedtime technique (Stay In Bed). Jo reports that she made sure Paul did the technique because he is the one who needed it the most. First step is reading a bedtime story. Afterwards, Gabrielle keeps getting out of bed and Paul puts her back in bed each time and wins. Nina reports she is stunned that Gabrielle went to bed by 8pm. Jo notes that this is a great accomplishment for the parents. Jo tells the parents she will be leaving them for a few days and to follow her techniques.

Nina reports that she is nervous about Jo leaving, because she is afraid the things Jo taught them will fall through the cracks.

DVD meeting
After a few days, Jo returns and has the parents look the DVD that has recorded how they followed the techniques well or not. Jo comments on them. When Gabrielle refused to eat her dinner, Nina told her to take two bites of her lasagna by herself. Instead of waiting this out, Paul decided to feed Gabrielle some bites, undermining Nina's authority yet again. Jo explains that they should tell her she needs to eat certain bites and if she refuses, she can leave the table. But if she complains about being hungry later, the parents should just remind her that she chose not to eat dinner and she can't have more food that evening.

Jo notices that Paul neglected to spend fun quality time with Nicholas, thus making him do menial chores like picking up and taking out the garbage. Nicholas cries and complains that they did not do anything fun like Paul promised. Paul thought they could just do the chores very quickly and move on to one-on-one time, but it didn't turn out that way. Jo reminds Paul that one-on-one time is to spend quality time with Nicholas, not to do chores.

Reinforcement
Later, she teaches Nina how to give Gabrielle a comfortable bath for a few minutes. If she acts up in the tub, Nina will give her warning; the second time she will be taken out early. Gabrielle did very well in the tub and no warning and consequence was needed. Jo presents Paul and Nicolas with a Guess Who? board game to use for one-on-one time, and they play happily. Soon, it's bedtime. Jo tells the family she has to leave for good. And pretty soon, it's "see ya later suckers!" to the Cantoni family.

Behind The Scenes
The episode was filmed in October 2005.

Family members

 * Paul Cantoni, 32
 * Nina Cantoni, 34
 * Nicolas, 6 (Born September 11, 1999)
 * Gabrielle, 3 (Born June 8, 2002)
 * Giana, 1 (Born April 6, 2004)

Events Post-Episode

 * Paul and Nina divorced.

Trivia

 * It is unknown why Gabrielle was attempting to cling onto Nina when Jo entered the House, it’s possible she wanted her to pick her up similar to how she wanted Paul to in the Teaching.
 * Gabrielle could be seen drinking from a baby bottle in the Observation during her Mad Bedtime Spree. However, Jo did not implemented the Bye Bye Bottle Technique.
 * This episode was intended for Season 2, but aired for Season 3 instead.
 * This is one of two episodes that was pushed over to another season, The other being The Doyle Family which was also intended for Season 2 but was pushed to Season 4.