The Fernandez Family

Episode summary
Jo goes to Kissimmee, Florida where she visits the Fernandez family.

High-school sweethearts Jerald (31) and Marla (29) have three children under 13: 12-year-old Desiree, 5-year-old Elias and 3-year-old Eulisis (who goes by his nickname "Shorty").

Shorty is out of control with his violent temper tantrums. He would do anything to aggravate his family and win the battle. Meanwhile the two older children don't act out much as Shorty, but they can be non compliant. Desiree is going through adolesence and can sometimes talks back, especially to her mother. Her grades are also getting lower as she refuses to do her homework. Elias is even calmer than both Shorty and Desiree, but he can be a bit quirky at times and can be mischevious.

However the parents are no better. Marla would yell at the children and give them threats. Marla's relationship with Desiree is very strained as she critizes her and even engage in arguing with her. Jerald lazes around in his own throne behaving entitled and it leads to conflict between Marla and himself. Although Jo has told Jerald to step up, Marla hasn't done much to improve her own mistakes. Can Jo sort these young parents out?

Observation
Jo meets the family. While Shorty was hesitant to shaking Jo's hand, overall everyone welcomed Jo into their house.

The first order of buisness is that Marla needed to go the store to buy some clothes for herself and Desiree. Jerald did not want to come because it is girls' shopping, though, he made a choice to come. Shorty refused to put his shoes he threw a temper tantrum. Mom was giving mixed messages of what they should do with Shorty. It took 40 minutes for the whole family to get ready and left without the door shut.

When everyone got to the store, Elias was standing in front of the entrance. He was hesitant to come into the store so Marla threatened her kid that the cops would come. This made Jo laugh hysterically. A few minutes later, Elias eventually went in as if nothing happened. Once everyone was in the store, Shorty still did not want to put his shoes on and Jerald forced him to put the shoes on. Shorty threw a violent tantrum and Marla couldnt concentrate on shopping for her dress. Eventually the tantrum was so bad that Shorty peed on the floor and the family had to leave. Marla made an excuse for Shorty while Jerald had to clean up the mess.

Back at home, Jo decided to have a chat with Desiree about her strained relationship with her parents. Desiree admitted her grades went down because she didn't do her homework. However she opened up that she got the impression that she meant nothing to her parents. She told Jo that one time her mother told her, after she accidentally dropped a glass of water that she was stupid, an idiot and her whole life was an accident. It is important that Desiree makes better decisions, but her parents cannot hold a grudge forever.

Jerald always was seen sitting down on the couch and Marla was doing the chores all of the time. Jo had a word with Marla about her relationship with Jerald despite the fact that she loves him but not in love with him.

Parents' Meeting
Jo brings the topic of they're not trusting Desiree, the lack of disclipline but Gerald blurted out "We hoping they grow out of it, I guess" - but Jo calls Dad "pathetic" and "ignorant", the fact that Shorty threw a big tantrum over a pair of shoes, and she mentioned the list of threats Mom makes to her children which is not for Mom to talk like that because she is their parent.

Teaching
The family showed really poor behaviour and Jo had to lay down boundaries. She comes up with 'Rules of the Ring' house rules as the boys like wrestling. Desiree was writing the rules down, but the pen cap fell down on the floor, Shorty picked it up then but refused to give the pen lid and went into time-out altough Marla was not firm enough when giving him a warning so Jo intervened to demonstrate how to do a time-out and he was there for 3 minutes. During time-out, Shorty was going out of the corner as Marla was putting him back into time-out she was pleading with him. Jo wanted both Marla and Gerald to take turns when placing Shorty into time-out to make sure they are both on the same page, after 67 returns, he later calmed down and apologized.

Jo wanted to give Gerald this fun idea to bring him closer with Desiree so he can rebuild his trust with her. The fortune teller game was about asking questions and learning more about each other.

During the dinner time, Gerald was cooking which surprised Jo and her strong words in the meeting did make an impact. Marla says, "She is out of her element because she doesn't know what to do with myself". After dinner, she sat down both parents to sort out the daily chores and who is going to do what, then the parents made up a weekly chart to divide the chores evenly.

Desiree's homework needed to be addressed as her grades were falling down so Jo set up a homework system and attitude towards homework needed to be changed. Desiree rushed with her though Marla had to review it but was not happy about it so they both went into a tense argument. Mom was carrying months of frustration and Jo said that Mom needs to be mature, so she wanted an apology from Desiree for the way that she spoke to Mom. After all that, Mom took Desiree to a school dance and hoped that things would change.

The next day, Jo bring both Marla and Gerald with Desiree in the garden to have a discussion. Elias interupted so told to leave but refused so he went into a time-out, although, Marla was not doing time-out correctly without giving explaination and demanding an apology. Therefore, Jo made Marla to write down the steps for time-out on a piece of paper. Jo had to leave for several days though there was a lot of homework had to be done especially Mom had to work on time out despite struggling on it.

Clip 1
Marla told everyone to get ready to go to the store and took only 11 minutes to get prepared which was a big difference compared to in the Observation. Marla managed to buy clothes for herself and Gerald was entertaining the boys. Everyone had remained calm and do as they are told.

Clip 2
Gerald had bonding time with Desiree which includes playing the fortune teller game and taking her out for shopping. The difference was better communication.

Clip 3
The family was baking brownies in the kitchen, although Marla was hushed about the boys making a mess with the eggs and sitting on the counter. Jo says to Marla, "Kids make mess, Adults make mess".

Clip 4
Elias was being silly, even though he was hardly doing anything wrong that would warrant a timeout, Marla sent him into time-out anyway with no warning. Although Elias stayed in timeout for his defined time, there was no explanation and the apology step was all a joke. Jo was not pleased.

Reinforcement
Marla was putting in the effort to do a proper disclipline. Shorty wanted Gerald instead of Marla to make milk for him which made her upset. Then Jo had a word with both Mom and Dad to say that they are finding a 1,000 excuses why they can't step up and do what they are supposed to be doing. Marla went into a rage saying, "I'm getting pissed off!", when Jerald was making a certain body language but he was taking it in that he has to be committed.

Shorty went into a tantrum so he threw the bottle then Marla warned him if he does not pick up the bottle he will go into time-out.

Marla was moving in the right direction despite that she needs to compose herself even if things do get messy. The family went outside to wash the car which involved getting wet and resulted in one clean car at the end. Marla says, "We had a great time, splashed water and getting wet".

Family Members

 * Jerald Fernandez, 31
 * Marla Fernandez, 29
 * Desiree, 12
 * Elias, 5
 * Eulisis, 3

Behind the scenes
This episode was filmed in October 2010.

Trivia

 * Marla being concerned about the Boys making a mess is similar to how Lisa was concerned with Blake, Cameron and Zoe making a mess with the Clay in The Benjany Family.
 * Marla is considered to be one of the worst mothers in the series. Due to her extremely disturbing threats to the kids.
 * Shorty holds the second-most timeout returns in the series, being returned 64 times in total. Tia from The Williams Family (U.K.) and Rhys from The Howat Family are tied for the most times returned in the series, being returned 100 times each.

Pop Culture
When Jo arrives, Shorty can be seen eating Cool Ranch Doritos.