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 in High Desert, California. Danielle (28) and Tom (45) need help with their seven children: 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 ½-year-old Kassiah and 6-month-old Caden.

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

The middle children - Cheryl, Allyson, MacKenzie and Riley - act 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. Can Jo help this family before Tom leaves to go to Iraq, and can she handle one of her biggest families yet?

Family members[]

Due to requests from the family, all birthdays have been removed. Please do not add them back, under respect for the family's privacy, otherwise will be reported to admins

Person	Age	Age (Now)	Relation to Family
Thomas "Tom" Silva	45	62 or 63	Father
Danielle Silva	28	45	Mother
Meghan	17	35	Daughter (Paternal)
Cheryl	8	27	Daughter (Maternal)
Allyson (now Max)	7	26	Daughter/Son (Paternal)
Mackenzie	6	25	Daughter (Maternal)
Riley	2	21	Daughter
Kassiah	1 ½	20	Daughter
Caden	6 Months	19	Son

Other Members[]

Brianna Silva (Tom's daughter; she has both Down Syndrome and autism. She did not appear in this episode because Tom's ex-wife did not grant permission for her to do so.)
Corbin Silva (Danielle and Tom's son; born after Supernanny)
Solange Silva (Danielle and Tom's daughter; born after Supernanny)

Transcript[]

Silva Family/Transcript

Submission Reel[]

Jo arrives in California to help the Silva Family. The parents, Danielle (28) and Tom (45), need help with their seven kids. When they married, they each brought in two children from their previous marriages: Tom brought in Meghan (17) and Allyson (7) while Danielle had Cheryl (8) and Mackenzie (6). Together, they have Riley (2), Kassiah (1 1/2), and their only son, Caden (6 months). Tom works for the army, so he is gone from Monday to Friday and leaves Danielle with the kids all week.

Even though Mackenzie and Allyson are stepsisters, they do not like each other and all four of the middle children run riot. To make things worse, the girls, even Riley who is two, all cuss. Tom's relationship with Meghan is falling apart drastically: sometimes he doesn't even think that they are on the same planet. Danielle admits she yells a lot at the kids.

Considering this is Jo's biggest family (for the time being) and how the house itself is just chaos, Cheryl thinks this will be the worst house that Jo has visited. To make matters more dire, Tom is going of to war in Iraq for 18 months. If their problems aren't solved in two weeks, chaos will reign over the whole house. Jo declares, "You guys are in a crisis. I'm on my way."

Observation[]

The girls greet Jo when she arrives at their house; in an interview segment, Cheryl is relieved to see that Jo has arrived. After being introduced to the kids, Danielle gives her a tour of the messy house, with clothes and toys pilled up in the hallways and rooms. Jo notes that no cleaning has been done. Jo later looks for the girls, and finds Riley, who shockingly curses at her. Mackenzie parrots what Riley said, and when asked by Jo what Riley meant, Mackenzie explains that Riley didn't like her. Jo believes that they must have heard the curse words from someone to be able to repeat them.

Danielle engages on a mad cleaning spree without cooperation from the kids, who roughouse with and curse at one another. Jo then looks outside, where she sees Riley driving Kassiah around in a Power Wheels car without helmets on. When Riley entered the house alone, Jo realized that Kassiah had not come back in with Riley. Jo and Danielle go out into the yard and realize that the car's battery died. Fortunately, Kassiah was still in the car. Later on, while Danielle is trying to get busy, Riley is causing mischief. Whatever she tells Riley what to do, she does the exact opposite. Tensions continue to rise until Danielle loses her temper and smacks Riley. Meanwhile Cheryl, Allyson, and Mackenzie are just as defiant and the rough play continues. Danielle constantly barks orders at the kids. When the dust is settled, Danielle laments to Jo about how hard it will be for her when Tom departs for Iraq.

When Meghan arrives home from school, she talks to Jo about her relationship with Tom. Meghan admits that she can trust Jo, as she wanted to hear what she had to say. On Friday, Tom returns and Jo greets him.

Parents Meeting[]

Jo promptly states that they need to cut to the chase. She is shocked at the untidiness of the house. When she asks Danielle why there is no order, she confesses that other than yelling and swearing at them, she gets no cooperation. Jo is shocked to hear that the kids are swore at and understandably questions what part of them thinks swearing at their children is acceptable. Tom claims that neither of them thought that it was okay, and that they dont want their children to grow up swearing all the time. Jo counters his argument with her encounter with Mackenzie and Riley the previous day.

The parents laugh at this, because they know Riley would do something like that. According to Danielle, Riley thinks everything is the word she called Jo. Jo declares that them swearing in front of the kids is not the way to teach kids how to communicate with eachother, and that they have to teach their kids that it's not okay. Finally, she grills Tom on his relationship with Meghan.

Teaching[]

Jo's first order of business is to bring in a routine. She institutes the Task Timer to encourage the girls to help Danielle with the chores. Even though MacKenzie initially refuses to help, she is eventually convinced into helping. As a reward, Jo has the kids play outside. Instead of joining in however, Danielle just sits and watches them. Although Danielle says that they have $2,000 worth of toys, Jo says that they don't want that; they just want her. After Danielle realizes just how much her children need her, she ends up playing with them.

Next, Jo introduces the Trash Talk technique to get rid of the girls' swearing habit. Each child starts with ten mouths, but every time they swear, they lose a mouth. If they make it through the week without swearing, they get a prize coupon. The strategy is quite effective; in an interview segment, Meghan said that she was pissed, and quickly asks if that counted. When Allyson calls Riley the r word, Danielle makes her take down one of her mouths.

With the issue of swearing out of the way, Jo's next move is to deal with Riley and her pacifiers. She introduces the Binky Fairy (Paci-Fairy, as Danielle calls it). Upon hearing about it, Riley was extremely excited, and didn't bother putting up a fight to protect her pacifiers; she gathered all her binkies into a bag to give to the Binky Fairy. The next day, they return to the tree and Riley gets a Dora doll. Now that things have started to change, Jo decides to bring some positivity to the house. She sets up an obstacle course and one by one, everyone cheered on the person who was taking on the course. Tom jokes that Jo sounded like a military instructor.

Before Jo left, she introduces a brand new technique called the Circle of Praise. This way, more positivity could be spread around the house. However, when it was time for Tom to compliment Meghan, he said nothing. Jo ended up calling a timeout and she sat with Tom and Meghan alone to have a talk. Lots of Meghan's emotions started coming out. Jo then leaves the family for a few days, hoping that they will continue instituting her lessons.

Family Test Run[]

Danielle used the Task Timer perfectly. However, Riley got frustrated and swore, so she had to take one of her mouths down without a fight. In the end, the family gets the house clean in only 30 minutes.

When Jo thinks that Danielle can keep up with the hard work without the main cameras, she sees Danielle sitting on the couch for hours and ignoring the routine entirely through surveillance . Jo thinks that Danielle has forgotten about the surveillance cameras installed around the house to watch the family.

Later on, Allyson and Mackenzie locked themselves and Caden in his bedroom. Caden began crying and Danielle banged on the door to his bedroom. Mackenzie asked, “Who is it?” Danielle, demanded the girls to "Open the (censored) door". When the door eventually opens, she yelled at Allyson for locking the door and declared that Mackenzie was just as guilty, going as far as to mock her questioning, "Who is it?" She tells the two that they were both grounded and left in a rage. Later, Danielle called someone on the phone and proceeds to swear in front of Riley. Danielle even mentions the Trash Talk went right out the window. Outraged by this, Jo returns to the Silvas' house.

DVD Meeting[]

Clip 1: Danielle used the Task Timer perfectly. Jo is proud that Danielle gave the girls lots of praise.

Clip 2: Danielle banged on the bedroom door, demanding Allyson and MacKenzie to "open the (censored) door."

Jo asks if that is what goes on when the cameramen are not in the house. Danielle really did forget that surveillance Jo installed were in the house.

Clip 2, continued: Danielle furiously stormed into MacKenzie's and Allyson's room to yell at them for locking the bedroom door and shuts MacKenzie down when she offers her side of the story.

Jo declares she will not allow Danielle to continue her behavior, because she would emotionally scar the children. While Danielle claims that it was a horrible night for her, Tom points out that now that someone has come in and given them a clue, there is no room for excuses.

Clip 3: Danielle just sits on the couch and ignores the routine entirely. Danielle claims that the routine was hard to follow, but Tom says that it is because they never had a routine in the first place. Going back to the first second clip, Jo points out that the girls never got an apology from Danielle's behaviour. So she would have to work on that.

Reinforcement[]

Jo had a lot to cover in the reinforcement, and needed to do it quickly.

After what had happened previously, Danielle apologizes to the kids for how she acted, promising to be a better mother. Everyone accepts her apology.

Next, Jo wanted to see how the girls did over the week with the Trash Talk technique. Meghan removed all of her mouths even though she only said the b-word three times; she felt as if it would be easier to take them all off since she wasn't going to get a coupon anyway. Meanwhile, Allyson lost two of her mouths and Riley only lost one. That left MacKenzie and Cheryl with all their mouths remaining on the board, so they would get their coupons. Cheryl in particular was really happy because she gets to pick a souvenir from their upcoming trip to Disneyland.

Finally, Jo has Tom talk to Meghan before he had to leave for Iraq. According to Tom: "Anytime you're going off 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." Tom shows Meghan a watch that his great-grandfather gave to him. He wanted Meghan to keep it for him while he's in Iraq, as he wants to come back for it. Upon hearing this, Meghan began to cry. Tom admits that 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.

Events Pre-Production[]

Tom and Danielle married on October 11, 2003.

Events Post-Production[]

Tom survived his time in Iraq and made it home safely.
Meghan gave birth to daughters Lily (2009), Lorelei (2012), Wynter (2021), and sons AJ (2015) and Lucian (2018).
Cheryl gave birth to her daughter, Indie Mae Kirby, in July 2022.
Danielle gave birth to two more children with Tom: son Corbin and daughter Solange, both with Tom. She is now a mother of 13 children, including seven biological kids (Cheryl, MacKenzie, Riley, Kassaiah, Caden, Corbin, and Solange) and 5 stepchildren (Meghan, Allyson, Brianna, and two unnamed kids). She is a grandmother to Lily, Lorelei, AJ, Lucian, and Wynter, and Indie Mae.
Danielle and Tom divorced, but they are still involved in all of their children and stepchildren's lives.
Allyson was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and later came out as transgender. His name is now Max. He is the first child who appeared on Supernanny to come out as transgender. The second is Sara from The Doyle Family.
Danielle remarried, and she and her current husband are raising Wynter.
Tom later became a Republican.
As of 2024, Meghan is 35, Cheryl is 27, Max is 26, Mackenzie is 25, Riley is 21, Kassiah is 20, Caden is 19 Corbin is 17 and Solange is 16

Trivia[]

During the observation, when Danielle was cleaning the house, Riley saying the B-word was left uncensored.
Tom says Jo knew his family in a few short days of observation; this means that Jo's Observation lasted for several days, likely so she could meet Tom.
This episode marks the first time in the U.S. series in which someone cries during an interview segment. In this case, it was Meghan who began crying when talking about getting Tom’s great grandfather's watch.
The final scene of the Submission Reel in which Jo says, "You guys are in a crisis. I'm on my way," became an internet meme in 2018. The meme itself features a frame of Jo saying the quote, with a caption saying, "You guys are in a crisis. I'm on my way to make it worse."
This is the first episode where Jo fixes a relationship (Tom and Meghan). The second is The Bruno Family (John and Taylor). The third one is The Mann Family (Melissa and Naomi) The fourth one is The Atkinson Family (Jen and Amanda) and the fifth one is The George Family (Samantha And Brooke).
This is the first episode of the U.S series to have a teenager.
Riley is one of four children who did not resist the Bye Bye Binky technique. The second is Cara from The Schrage Family, the third is Lily from The Sacco Family (unlike Luke), and the fourth is Christian from The Lewis Family. Christian's case is particularly interesting, as the technique was utilized during the 100th Episode Special. Furthermore, Jo did not use any sort of incentive; she just removed Christian's pacifier from his mouth.
Technically, Danielle had no reason to apologize to all of the children in the Reinforcement. As pointed out by people, she only lost her temper at Mackenzie and Allyson, and was never shown doing so with the other girls, meaning Danielle would only need to apologize to them. It is very much possible though that the other girls overheard the dispute, which is why she would have to do this.
This episode is ranked #1 on Ranker's "Best Episodes of Supernanny."
- Notably, the plot synopsis for the episode on the website, is false. The synopsis makes no mention of the actual Silvas or any of the events transpiring in the episode, instead choosing to summarise a different made-up family with the same last name. It states: "Supernanny Jo helps Debra and Tony Silva tackle their problems with their four children, Daniel, Erica, Damon, and Kevin, who are energetic and have difficulty following rules. Jo introduces the Silva family to her structured techniques to curb defiance and restore peace in the household."
Whilst Danielle could be considered the second parent to disagree with Jo's techniques after Arthur Webb, this is not the case. Whilst she was seen not following the routine in the test run, she did not state any open disagreement with it. Rather, she fully supported the routine and simply found it hard to follow, which Tom pointed out was due to them never having one prior.

Special Needs[]

Brianna: Down syndrome and autism
MacKenzie: Saethre–Chotzen syndrome and Pfeiffer Syndrome
Max: Bipolar disorder
Caden: PDD-NOS, OCD, Autism; born premature at 33 weeks gestation.
Corbin: Autism
Solange: Born premature at 23 weeks gestation.

Fan Reception[]

The Silva Family is one of the more controversial, infamous episodes of Supernanny. Many viewers criticized Danielle for cursing and yelling at the kids, and some have even considered her to be lazy. Tom has also been criticized primarily for his alienation of Meghan.

However, more contemporary fans believe that Tom and Danielle were good parents who were simply overwhelmed: Tom's progress was very quick and linear while Danielle had her ups and downs; regardless, she still made considerable progress. Viewers also recognized that despite the vitriol that the children claimed to hold towards one another, they loved one another deep down. They have praised Danielle and Tom for not parentifying Meghan, and a couple attributed Danielle's behavior to what they considered to be depression.

All in all, The Silva Family is one of the most watched episodes of Supernanny, and as more time passes and viewership remains strong, fans will increasingly appreciate it.

Pop Culture[]

The game "Guess Who?" can be seen in several scenes.
Mackenzie is seen wearing a Strawberry Shortcake shirt in the submission reel.
The Step 2 Kitchen set can be seen in the submission reel.
A Winnie the Pooh toy can be seen in the submission reel.
An episode of SpongeBob SquarePants can be seen on the TV when Jo says hello to Allyson. It was the season 4 episode "Good Neighbors", which is heavily disliked.
A Disney Princess coat can be seen during the observation.
When Jo looks around the house as Danielle was giving her a tour, a Strawberry Shortcake backpack can be seen.
A Little Tikes Rhythm Maker Toy Drum can be seen in the observation.
When Riley curses at Jo during the Observation, she wears an Eeyore shirt.
- A "Dora The Explorer" blanket can be seen in the same scene.
A Nintendo GameCube can be seen in the background when Jo is doing the Circle of Praise exercise.
Cheryl mentions going to Disneyland when she talks about her coupon.
A My Little Pony Butterfly Island playset is 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. However, they were blanked out for copyright reasons.
Winnie the Pooh stickers can be seen on Meghan's dresser.
A Fairly OddParents bedding can be seen on Meghan's top bunk.
When the first pile of clothes is shown in the Observation, a stuffed toy of Squirtle from Pokémon can be seen.
During the Observation, when the second pile of clothing is shown, a Miss Spider book can be seen.
- A DVD cover of the Baby Einstein video, "Baby Van Gogh" can also be seen.
A Blue's Clues pillow can be seen in a couple of scenes.