The Winter Family

Episode summary
Jo Frost visits Marietta, Georgia to meet Cathy (36) and Tom Winter (39) with their 5 children: 16-year-old Kristin (Cathy's daughter and Tom's stepdaughter for 13 years), 6-year-old twins Kayla and Erica, 4-year-old Tori and 3-year-old Tommy.

Submission reel
Cathy and Tom had just moved to Georgia from New York. Cathy is also recovering from kidney cancer and needs a lot of support from Tom.

The four little ones are acting out: The twins fight with each other. Kayla would hit or hurt Erica or vice versa. They would fight for their parents' attention.

Erica sometimes can be defiant and stubborn. If she has to do something she doesn’t like doing, she would roll her eyes and talk back. Tori is a screamer, she will throw a fit if she doesn't get what she wants. Kayla would also scream but not as much as Tori. Tommy is a strong willed 2 year old. If there's something that he wants and if it's in your hand, he will come up and bite you. He would bite his parents and sisters to get his way.

In the submission reel, four of the Winter children don’t do as they’re are told and they’re completely out of control. It’s so hectic, that there’s loads of screaming, hair pulling, wrestling, hitting, teasing and playfully kicking dad on the swings, biting mom, and temper tantrums.

Bedtime is the worst time. The twins sleep in their own beds like big girls in their own room, but Tori and Tommy prefer to sleep with mom. They will horse around for an hour to an hour and a half.

Tom believes that when his stepdaughter, Kristin hangs out with her friends, she is doing irresponsible things and for many years. Their relationship has been distant. As a result Tom and Kristin are beginning to argue.

Observation
Mom went off to do some errands and dad had to watch the 4 youngest kids. Dad is afraid of watching the them because they are out of control. He called mom 2 times about the kids’ bad behavior. It's Kayla sitting on a dangerous area and kicking the camera and Tommy playing with the trash can and dad told them to get off. When dad called mom time second time Erica wanted to talk to her. It's Tori screaming and testing her dad. She even hit Tommy. It's Tommy shaking the table knocking over a photo. Then mom came home. Meanwhile Jo had a chance to talk to Kristen and Dad separately about their relationship due to Kristen's friends.

It's bath-time and when mom told Tommy it was bath-time, he said no. Eventually all 4 little ones were in the tub. It's Tori, Tommy and Kayla being seen screaming at the same time. It's just Tommy jumping of the side of the tub and he stands on the tub. It's both of the twins kicking each other. At the end Erica was seen to be the first one out of the tub wrapped in a green towel while mom was yelling at the others and in one scene of bath time. While Cathy was yelling, she mistaken one child in the tub for Erica when Erica was already out of the tub. Kayla and Tori were then seen wrestling each other in the tub. Soon the other ones got out as well but Tommy refused to get out of the tub and was the last one to get out. It's mass chaos and Tommy is the biggest problem at bath-times because he acting out dangerously even though he was having fun. Kayla in the interview admitted bath-time was crazy.

Later on Tori is acting out and mom called many times telling her to stop. Then she was screaming and mom had to put her on the naughty step for timeout. Mom held her down and yelling at her. She did not explain to her why she was on the step. So no wonder why she escaped from timeout. Tori in the interview admitted that she likes to scream. Then Tommy sneaked up on mom and bit her. Then mom had to do 2 time outs. She put both Tommy and Tori in their rooms. Both of them were escaping but mom kept putting them back. Then when mom asked Tori if she's going to stop, she spit right her face and mom put her back in her room.

Then it was 8:00 and the 4 youngest kids were riled up and mom decides that she's going to put the 4 to bed. Mom did a five second countdown and they will be sorry if she got to one. Bedtime at the house, the twins sleep in their beds, they are very good about that. Tommy and Tori refuse to go to their room and sleep, they sleep in their mom's bed every night. It takes an hour to an hour and a half to get them sleeping. Tommy won’t go down without a fight and launched into a temper tantrum that lasted for an hour.

Teaching
Jo teaches Cathy the Sleep Separation technique and Tom the Stay In Bed technique. The episode also includes the Naughty Step technique. And Jo also teaches Tom how to trust Kristin and her friends.

Family members

 * Cathy Winter, 36 (born November 26, 1971)
 * Thomas "Tom" Winter Sr., 39 (born March 12, 1969)
 * Kristin, 16 (born February 24, 1992)
 * Kayla and Erica, 6 (born August 10, 2001)
 * Victoria "Tori", 3 (born May 9, 2004)
 * Thomas Jr. "Tommy", 2 (born September 5, 2005)

Pop Culture

 * One of the kids (Tommy) is seen wearing a pair of Finding Nemo pajamas.
 * Tommy is also seen wearing Lightning McQueen pajamas.

Behind the scenes
This episode was filmed in April 2008.