The Ririe Family

The Ririe Family is the eighth episode of Season 1 of the American Supernanny show.

In addition to this episode, the Ririe family members also appeared on the Season 1 Family Update Special.

Episode Summary

Jo meets the Ririe Family of Thousand Oaks, California. The Riries are a family with four children: Selia (9), Hallden (7), Blake (3) and Broden (1), whom they call him, "Brody".

Scott and Jennifer have two completely different outlooks on how their children should be parented. Where Jen fears for her children's safety and poor eating habits, Scott laughs it off. Blake challenges his parents the most, is strong-willed, always runs away, and doesn't listen and do as he is told. So it's up to Jo to show these parents how to get Blake and the rest of the family in line-- and the parents in agreement.

Family Members

Person	Age (Then)	Relation to Family
Scott Ririe	-	Father
Jennifer Ririe	-	Mother
Selia	9	Daughter
Hallden	7	Son
Blake	3
Broden "Brody"	1

The child was disciplined via one of Jo Frost's techniques.

Recap

See also: The Ririe Family/Transcript

Observation

As observation begins, Jennifer is getting Selia and Hallden ready for school and Blake disappears. Jo and Jennifer follow him out of the house. Blake randomly runs around the neighborhood asking, "Where's Nicholas?" When they reel him back in, Jennifer informs Scott, who explains that Blake just wanted to give a toy back to his friend Nicholas, the kid who he was asking about. As usual, Scott dismisses Blake's behaviour. After Jennifer and Jo had a talk, Jennifer and the kids head for the mall. Blake runs off in every direction, at one point he even pretended all of his bones had just stopped working and wouldn't get up. Then once Blake did get up he caused Jennifer to leave Selia, Hallden and Broden where they were while she had to run off and get Blake from the toy store. Then Jennifer has to change Blake’s Toy Story pull up by taking it off then grabbing a fresh new one from the bathroom and then tells him to put it on, which he does. Back at home, Jo notices that the kids are constantly snacking. The pantry is like a candy store, filled from top to bottom with cookies and candy. Even baby Brody helps himself to snacks from the pantry. When Jennifer locks the pantry and tells Hallden and Blake that they cannot get any more snacks, Blake has a tantrum.

Jennifer and Scott are on different pages when it comes to snack time. Scott is happy for the kids to snack constantly. The kids refuse to sit down for lunch time. Jennifer feeds Blake some cheese, which he spits into the trash can. Jennifer explains that Blake does this repeatedly (fills his mouth with food, then spits it out in the trash). Scott thinks it's no big deal that Blake doesn't eat because he will drink all of chocolate milk, which gives him all the nourishment he needs.

Parents meeting

Jo tells them that they seem to be living the American dream and they should be proud of their adorable children. When Jo brings up Blake running off at the parents meeting, Scott laughs, and he admits that he was exactly like Blake in his youth. Jo tells him that he needs to respect and support Jennifer. Scott later says that he felt like he was being picked on by Jo.

Teaching

Jo brings in a routine, which highlights snacks, limiting them to three a day. When Jo introduces the rules, she addresses Blake specifically. She introduces the Naughty Circle for Blake and the Naughty Room for Selia and Hallden. When outside playing with his friend Nicholas, Blake not only starts running off again, but outright ignores Jen when told to stop. He is placed on the Naughty Circle.

Jo puts locks on the door to keep Blake from running off. She also places a giant stop sign on the door to remind Blake to stop and ask his parents for permission to go outside.

When Jennifer takes the kids to the park, Jo introduces her to the Roaming technique. Jo brings in snack jars. She clears out the snacks that she thinks are trash and lets the children choose three of the remaining snacks for their jar. Jo makes the parents write down what they need from each other. The children now all sit down at dinner, but Blake refuses to eat. When Jennifer says that she wants him to eat three bites, Jo corrects her since Blake would not be able to survive on two bites. With some encouragement, Blake eats.

Family Test Run

Jo leaves for a few days. With Jo gone, Jennifer handles with Naughty Room and Circle very well, but Scott does not seem involved. Jennifer confronts him about it during Same Page time, but it isnt as co-herent as Jo would've hoped. When Scott returns home from work Jennifer forgets to lock the door, and as such Blake is back to running off. When he does, she pinches his face and tells her he wasnt allowed to go outside. Things get worse from there. Jo appreciates the fact that Jen did decide to go to the mall like she requested. However it falls into catastrophe quite quickly. Whilst Jen does tell Blake to stop, she does not call him back to make him hold onto the stroller and because of that, Blake is back to running rampant.

Reinforcement

Jo, Jennifer, and the kids head for the mall a third time. When Blake runs off, he is forced to hold on to the stroller again. Jo assists the parents with the Same Page technique again, and manages to get Scott involved in disciplining Blake. Before Jo leaves, Selia presents her with a picture she drew of Jo (in her Supernanny glasses, bun and purple suit) and baby Brody points at the shoes that she drew.

Family update

At the family update, Jennifer says she feels like it’s "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", as her kids are so much better behaved.

Pop Culture

Blake was carrying Woody from Toy Story around at the mall.
A Poster for Ocean's Twelve can be seen when Jennifer was telling Blake to get up.
Jennifer has a Tiffany's necklace.
Jennifer has a Louis Vuitton Handbag
Blake can be seen in a Sephora store

Behind the Scenes

This was filmed in October 2004.

Gallery

External Links

Season 1
The Jeans Family • The Bullard Family • The Orm Family • The Wischmeyer Family • The Weston Family • The Bailey Family • The Gorbea Family • The Ririe Family • The Collins Family • The Burnett Family • The Christiansen Family • Family Update Special