The Silva Family

The Silva Family is the thirteenth episode of Season 2 of the American Supernanny show.

Episode summary
Jo visits the Silva family where Danielle (28) and Tom (45) need help with their 7 kids: 17-year-old Meghan, and 7-year-old Allyson (from Tom's previous marriage); 8-year-old Cheryl, and 6-year-old MacKenzie (from Danielle's previous marriage); and 3 children together: 2-year-old Riley 1 1/2-year-old Kassiah and 6-month-old Caden.

Tom works all week for the Army National Guard and is going to be deployed to Iraq. Danielle stays at home with all 7 of the kids.

The middle children, Cheryl, Allyson, Mackenzie, and Riley are acting out. They fight aggressively, name call, and cuss. Danielle handles that by yelling and cussing back at them.

Meanwhile Meghan, and Tom's relationship is very strained, and Riley still uses her pacifier or "binky" as she calls it.

Can Jo help this family before Tom leaves to go to Iraq?

Other Members
Tom's Great Grandfather (Deceased, Year and Age of Death unknown)

Transcript

 * Silva Family/Transcript

Submission Reel
Jo arrives at Las Cruces, New Mexico to help her Next Family, She watches the Silva Family's Submission Reel, The Parents Danielle (28) and Tom (45) need help with their Seven Kids. When they Got Married they brought in Two Children from their previous Marriages, Tom brought in Meghan (17) and Allyson (7), while Danielle brought in Cheryl (8) and Mackenzie (6). Together they have Riley (2), Kassiah (1 1/2) and their only Son Caden (6 Months). Jo is quite surprised by this. Tom runs a Job at the Army so he's gone Monday To Friday, so Danielle is with the Kids all Week.

As They are Stepsisters, Mackenzie and Allyson do not like each other, much to Jo's Disbelief. Afterwards Jo shockingly finds out that all the older kids are swearing, even 2-year-old Riley does it. As for Tom, his relationship with Meghan is falling apart drastically. Sometimes Tom doesn't even think he and Meghan are even on the exact Same Planet. As for Danielle she yells a lot at the Kids and when she means it she means it, Constantly barking Orders at them even for the Smallest of things.

Due to all the Chaos and Madness in the House, Cheryl actually thinks this could be the Worst House Jo has ever visited, worse Tom is going of to War in Iraq for 18 Months meaning if their problems are not solved by Two Weeks, Chaos will reign over the whole house. "You guys are in a crisis, I'm on my way," Jo Shockingly states.

Observation
When Jo got there, The Girls greeted her. Cheryl says when Jo arrived she thought "Oh My God, She's Finally here." Danielle gives her a Tour of the House. It isn't that tidy, as clothes and toys are pilled up in the hallways and all the rooms. Jo Points out that no cleaning has been done. Later Jo was looking for the Girls and Shockingly in front of her Riley says "JoJo is *Censored*" Mackenzie then goes up to her and says that "Riley thinks Your *Censored*." Jo knew these Kids must hear this a lot.

Danielle then proceeded to go on a Mad Cleaning Spree without Co-operation from The Kids, as they Roughhouse with each other and their potty mouths are getting worse (Note that Riley saying the B word was left uncensored) and Danielle didn't care. Jo then looks outside, where she sees Riley driving Kassiah around in a Toy Tractor without Helmets on.

Eventually, when Riley came in alone, Jo realized Kassiah had disappeared which caused her and Danielle to look for her. Thankfully she was alright, as Riley had simply forgot about her and came in alone Danielle is trying to do work, but whatever she tells Riley to do she does the exact Opposite of it.

Later on Meghan got Home from School, and later she and Jo had a Talk about her Relationship with Tom. After it Meghan said that she can Trust Jo as she wanted to here what she had to say. On Friday Tom returns and Jo greets Him. Then She, Tom and Danielle have A Family Meeting.

Parents Meeting
At The Parents Meeting Jo states that they need to cut to the Chase as in 2 Weeks Tom will be going off to War in Iraq. She starts of by saying how she was shocked By The House being Extremely Un-Tidy, When she Asks Danielle why The Kid's don't help she actually confesses that other then Yelling or Swearing at them she gets nothing done.

When Jo hears this she asks them what part of them thinks it's Acceptable to swear at The Kids, When Tom says that they don't think its acceptable Jo points out how Mackenzie came up to her and said "Riley Thinks Your *Beep*" Danielle and Tom Shockingly admit Riley think's everything is *Beep*. Jo goes on to say that when they swear at them their being taught how to communicate. She then asks Tom what Meghan is like and His Relationship with her.

Teaching
As there is no routine in the house, Jo brings one in so they know when certain things are. She then introduces The Task Timer Technique so that The Girl's can actually be helpful and clean up. However Mackenzie refuses to help, but after some Nudging they finally get her to help them.

To celebrate this Jo decides to bring the Kids outside but instead of playing with them, Danielle just sits there and watches them, While Danielle says they have $2,000 Worth of Toys Jo says that they don't want that and they want her. In the End Danielle plays with The Kids.

Next Jo introduces The Trash Talk Technique to get rid of the Girl's swearing habit. The Girls start of with 10 Mouths, and if they Swear once they lose that Mouth and don't get a Coupon at the End of the Week. Meghan says she was Pissed and actually thought that counted. Right away Allyson called someone Retarded so she had to go and take down a Mouth.

Next up Jo decided to deal with Riley and her Horde of Binkies with this She Tells Danielle about the Binky Fairy (Paci-Fairy as Danielle calls it) and when Riley heard about it she got extremely excited and ran around the House and got all her Binkies into a Bag to give to the Binky Fairy. The Next Day they return to the Tree and Riley gets a Doll for giving up her Binkies.

Now that things have started to change, Jo decides to bring some Positivity to the House, with this she brings in an Obstacle Course and One by One Everyone Cheered the Person in the Obstacle Course on, Tom said that Jo sounded like she was in the Military.

Before Jo leaves, she introduces a Brand New Technique called the Circle of praise this way more Positivity can be spread to the House. However when it was time for Tom to compliment Meghan he said nothing so Jo called Timeout. With that all of Meghan's Emotions started coming out.

Jo then leaves the Family for a few days.

Family Test Run
At the start of the test run, Danielle uses The Task Timer Technique perfectly, Riley then swears so she had to put a mouth in the jar. In the end, they did it in 30 minutes.

When Jo thinks Danielle can keep the positive attitude up, she sees her on the couch for hours and ignoring the routine entirely. Jo thinks that Danielle had forgotten that her CCTV cameras were installed around the house to watch the family were watching her.

Later on, Danielle bangs on the door and tells Mackenzie to "Open the *bleep* door". She then mimics Mackenzie saying "Who is it?" like it mattered who was at the door. Mackenzie ends up getting grounded. Later, Danielle swears in front of Riley saying she didn't know what was going through her *beeping* mind with Kassiah in her Room (Referencing Makenzie somehow locking Kassiah in her room). Jo outraged by this returns to the Silva's House.

DVD Meeting
As Jo returns She, Tom and Danielle review the Footage Jo had collected over the Days

Clip 1: Clip 1 Has Danielle using the Task Timer while Riley says a bad word and takes a mouth out and put it in the jar. Then of course, cleaning time was ending at 30 Minutes and being Cheerful, Jo praises this.

Clip 2: Clip 2 has Danielle banging on the Door and telling Mackenzie to "Open The *Beeping* Door and then Grounding her and Someone else (Unknown who, but possibly Cheryl). Jo asks if that's what goes on there, as Danielle knows she's watching her, though it doesn't happen Normally according to Danielle.

Clip 3: Clip 3 has Danielle storming into Mackenzie's Room saying she doesn't want to hear her as she is just as Guilty, since instead of Unlocking the Door she asked who is it like it mattered who it was. Jo says she wont allow Danielle to continue and think its ok as she will make an Emotional scar on the Kids. She then asks Tom what he thinks of it and He says it's probably the worst parenting, Danielle says that it was a Horrible Night, However Tom points out that now that someone has come in and given them a Clue, theres no need for Excuses.

Clip 4: Clip 4 Shows Danielle just sitting on the Couch and ignoring the Routine entirely. Jo says that they needed a Routine but Danielle says that its hard to follow but Tom says its because they never had a Routine, Jo does point out that The Girls never got an Apology so their gonna work on that.

Reinforcement
After what had happened previously, Danielle apologized to the Kids for what had happened, she promises she will be a better mother to the Kids. Everyone accepts the Apology.

Next, Jo wanted to see how the Girls did over the week with The Trash Talk Technique. Meghan actually said the N word three times, so it was only valuable to have all of her mouths taken down. Allyson had lost Two of her Mouths and Riley only lost One. That means Mackenzie and Cheryl had all their mouths remaining on the Board so they got Coupons. Cheryl was really happy because she got to go to Disney Land on Monday and got to bring home a Souvenir.

Lastly as Time was running out, Jo gave the idea to Tom to talk to Meghan before he had to leave for Iraq. Tom says that "Any Time Your going of to War, there's a Chance that you might not come back, and so for me this was a terrific opportunity to make peace with my oldest Daughter" This ended up leading to one of Supernanny's most Emotional moments. Tom shows Meghan a Watch which was given to him by his Great Grandfather, and he wants Meghan to keep it for him while he's in Iraq, as he wants to come back for it. Hearing this Meghan began to Cry. Tom said if Jo didn't come to help The Family, he would never had made peace with Meghan.

Jo then leaves the Silva Family, knowing that they will be fine while Tom is in Iraq.

Behind The Scenes
This episode was filmed in November-December 2005.

Additional Information

 * According to Danielle's blog, Tom and Danielle married on October 11, 2003.
 * Sometime after this episode was finished, Allyson was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.
 * Allyson came out as transgender. His name is now Max, making him the first transgender child on Supernanny.

Post Production Events

 * Meghan got married.
 * Meghan gave birth to her daughter, Lily.
 * Danielle gave birth to two kids (they’re not twins). Their names are Corbin and Solange.
 * Danielle and Tom got divorced, but they're still involved in all of their children and stepchildren's lives.

Pop Culture

 * An episode of SpongeBob SquarePants can be seen on the TV when Jo says hello to Allison. The Episode Is Season 4 Episode: Good Neighbors
 * A Nintendo GameCube can be seen in the background when Jo is doing the compliment talk with the family.
 * Cheryl mentions going to Disney World on Monday to get a souvenir with her coupon.
 * A My Little Pony Butterfly Island playset can be seen in the submission reel.
 * Meghan has 2 Inuyasha plushies hanging in her bedroom.
 * During the Submission reel, Several VHS tapes like Balto and A Christmas Story were shown in Meghan's room albeit blanked out for copyright reasons.
 * Winnie the Pooh stickers can be seen on Meghan's dresser during the submission reel.
 * A Fairly Odd Parents bed sheet can be seen on Meghan's top bunk.

Trivia

 * Riley saying the B Word was left uncensored.
 * Tom says Jo knew his family in a few short days of Observation, This possibly means Jo observed for the entire week to meet Tom, making it the first Time Jo has observed for more than one day.

Special Needs

 * Mackenzie- Pfeffiers Syndrome
 * Allynson- Bi-Polar Disorder
 * Caden- PDD,OCD,NOS
 * Solange- Born Pre-Mature