The Harmony Family

The Harmony Family is the fifteenth episode of Season 2 of the American Supernanny show.

Episode summary

Jacob (27) and Erin (29) have 3 sons - Jake (11), Ian (5) and Grant (3). The latter two children respectively attack each other. In addition, eating out has led to embarrassment. Furthermore, Grant is noted to evict his father from his bed to sleep with his mother in the middle of the night.

Can Jo help Erin and Jacob restore their authority as parents towards Ian and Grant?

Submission Reel

As the taxi drives through sweeping Midwest plains, Jo views the Harmony Family's cry for help on DVD. Jacob, a construction worker, and Erin, an RN at a local clinic, need help with their children. Grant is a mama's boy who gets upset when Erin leaves the house and bites furniture when he doesn't get his way. "Grant, biting the armchair?" coos Jo with raised her eyebrows.

Ian is the instigator and gets into fights with Grant a lot. Jake is aggravated by having two younger brothers who make so much trouble. Erin says she is the disciplinarian and Jacob says he only disciplines when he feels it's needed.

They go out to eat at least twice a week and are prepared for embarrassment every time. In the restaurant, Grant climbs around, refuses to stay in place and screams when he doesn't get his way. Other restaurant patrons look on in disgust at the family's unpleasant behavior.

At night, Erin reports that Grant will sleep in bed for 4 hours, then brings his pillow into the parents' room and climb into bed.

Erin cries and says she feels her family is falling apart. "You guys need some good help. I'm on my way!" declares Jo.

Observation

Jo arrives at the Harmony Family home. Jake shakes hands with Jo in greeting. Erin tries to get Grant to greet Jo and shake her hand, but he refuses. Ian does shake Jo's hand. Erin has to run to the store, so Jo gets to see Grant fighting to prevent her from leaving. He tries getting into the car, then once Erin gets into the car and drives away, runs screaming down the long dusty road that leads from the house to the highway. Jo reports her confusion at seeing Erin stop the car when she should have just driven away. "What a palaver!" she says.

After Erin leaves, Jo observes what Jacob does to parent the boys. He leaves them alone in the front yard trampoline to play. He and Jo stand near the porch watching the boys tussle in the trampoline. Jake tells them to stop fighting. Jacob calls it playing and goes inside, but Jo declares that it is far too rough. While Grant screams in the trampoline, Jo looks on in confusion.

At nap-time, Grant throws another tantrum, biting a backpack, slamming a chair against a desk, then running all over the house, and screaming. Fed up with the chasing, Erin tells him, "If you get off your bed again, you're going into the breezeway!" After more chasing, Erin does put Grant there. Jo calls the breezeway the "cold conservatory area" and notes that with Grant now outside banging on the door and screaming, it has now spiraled out of control. She also notes that Erin in doing this, has "shooed him into the foyer like some pet!"

Erin tries to get the boys inside to get ready to go out to dinner. Ian and Grant are fighting again on a John Deere kid car. Grant is trying to get in the car while Ian repeatedly hits Grant. Grant screams and grunts and over this, Erin is telling Ian he needs to stop. Ian just flings his hand in Erin's face dismissively with a pout and scream. "He just doesn't listen to Mum," observes Jo. Erin again notes that she is the disciplinarian and Jacob won't do anything unless he's pushed to do so.

Jo notes that she has just seen Erin do all the work and that Jacob doesn't seem to help out at all. Erin tries getting Grant to walk himself to the car and Grant emits a loud grunting/shouting noise in response. Jo asks, "Is that how he talks to you?" Erin says, "Yes, all the time." Jacob stands off to the side smiling for no apparent reason.

The family proceed to eating out at dinnertime. Grant and Ian were constantly moody throughout dinnertime, notably screaming across the restaurant. Grant was making demands for knives, and later on, dessert, which Erin refused to give in at that point. The family exit the restaurant in disappointment, due to the usual bad behavior that Grant and Ian were exhibiting.

Jo then proceeds to ask Jacob to stay over the night on the couch, so she can observe Grant "evicting" his father from the bedroom. Surely enough, at 3:43AM (clock radio time), Grant went down the hallway and evicted Jacob from his spot in the bed, so that Grant can sleep with his mother. Jacob then proceeds to sleep on the couch, and Jo then leaves having seen enough.

Family Meeting

Jo proceeded to have a family meeting with Erin and Jacob. She considered both pushovers, followed by questions about their loss of control. She talked about Grant's misbehavior and bedtime, and talked in general about both Grant and Ian's lack of respect towards both Erin and Jacob. Erin and Jacob both commented that these were things that needed to be said, with Jacob adding that they have no defense to Jo's remarks about their family.

Teaching

Jo then starts off playing football with the rest of the family. Ian, however, misbehaved and Jacob had to put Ian on the Naughty Spot, both outside and eventually inside. Grant then hit Erin, which landed him immediately on the Naughty Spot without warning. Eventually, Ian and Grant gave in to the discipline and apologized to their parents.