The Bixley Family

The Bixley Family is the eleventh episode of Series 2 of the British Supernanny TV show.

Synopsis[]

"Supernanny is called to deal with a food phobic seven-year-old. But it's only when she witnesses a mealtime first-hand that she realizes the extent of the family's problems.

Heather and Alex Bixley live with their sons Brandon (7) and Zak (4). Brandon developed a negative relationship with food after having gastric flu as a baby. What started as fussy eating has become an obsessive fear that dominates family life.

After six years of non-stop battles with Brandon, Heather is at breaking point, but Supernanny has some harsh words for her and Alex. She's horrified by the way they aggressively try and force Brandon to have food he doesn't want, and tells them they've got no chance of turning things around until they stop fighting between themselves. Alex doesn't agree with Heather force feeding.

Supernanny introduces a menu of innovative techniques to change the boys' relationship with food, including her renowned 'little chef' technique - but the biggest hurdle is the bickering Bixley's themselves." - Channel 4 website

Episode Recap[]

Observation[]

Jo arrives at the Bixley home and meets the boys and their parents. Right away, it’s lunchtime, and the kids get served sausage and chips. Brandon refuses to eat. Heather makes things worse by hovering over him and demanding that he pick up the sausage on his plate. Brandon begins to gag at the sight of it, and says that if it touches his lips, he'll be sick. Heather than says that he can't be sick because there's nothing in his stomach, and it's not long before Heather jabs the sausage in his face. He tries to run to the bathroom. when Heather screams at him to get back to the table. Jo is absolutely shocked and appalled by the drama.

Later on, the family goes out to the mall. The boys run off in every direction, and climbing on the coin operated rides and Alex doesn’t let Heather know where he's going, much to her asking, "Where've you been?!" as if he is one of the kids, which also makes Jo laugh. When Zac continues to run off, Heather spanks him and starts to break down in distress from the boys' behavior. She later talks to Heather back in the house while the boys are playing, and says that she can't do it much longer, and may separate from Alex to have a more peaceful life.

Teatime is every bit as traumatic as lunch. Heather leans over the table with a spoonful of yogurt, and threatens that she will ram it in his face. Alex suggests that he closes his eyes and eats it, but Brandon knows that his mother will shove it in his throat. She keeps persuading him to eat the yogurt, and at one point giggles, before Heather forces the spoon in his mouth. He attempts to run to the sink, but gets stopped by Heather who tells him again, he can't be sick because he hasn't eaten anything. He runs to the sink and screams, while Alex cleans his mouth and gives him a drink.

Parent meeting[]

When the kids are put to bed, Jo confronts Heather and Alex, over mealtime of force feeding Brandon to eat the sausage and Heather and Alex laughed from Jo's speaking but it's no laughing matter is when you laugh in shock. She expresses that what she saw was so bad that she actually came really close to pulling Heather aside, over forcing a spoon to Brandon's face is bullying and not correct parenting and was absolutely livid with her. Heather was then ashamed of herself. She also talks with them about her and Alex's relationship between each other, and that he should listen to her.

Teaching[]

Jo brings in the household rules and introduces a discipline system. She starts it off by throwing away the Bixley's deep fryer. The family then goes out shopping for healthier food to change Brandon’s ways of eating. Jo implements a technique that encourages Brandon to add prices using a calculator, and Zac to help put food into the shopping cart. As a reward, the boys get to go on one of the rides.

Once they're home, Heather incorrectly disciplines Brandon and Alex whispers to Jo about it causing her to explode. When she questions him, it turns into a fight in front of the boys. Jo sends them outside where they shout at each other even more. Alex thinks she's too strict on the boys and Heather feels she isn't. He then lectures her for smoking with the boys around and she defends herself. Alex then tells her he doesn't like that he talks to him like he's her third child. When Jo sees them, she lectures' them on fighting in front of the boys. She sends Heather inside to allow Alex to sit down and cool off and her the same.

Before dinnertime, Jo introduces a technique giving the boys a choice as to what they will eat. She holds up two plates, each consisting of four food items. Brandon is unimpressed by this, and Zac makes the choice. While Heather prepares dinner, Alex catches the boys fighting, and does well with disciplining them. Jo also brings in reward placemats for the boys, where a sticker will be placed for each food group that the boys eat. Zac does well, but Brandon is still resisting after a half hour. Fortunately, dinner time is much calmer, and the attitude of the family is much more positive. Brandon shows that he is thinking about eating. Jo lets him make his decision. He ultimately decides not to.

Later on however, Brandon sneaks in a bag of crisps. Zac tattled on him, making Brandon throw the bag away, washed his hands and lips, and run away to the living room, but Alex and Jo catch him in the act. Jo reminds Brandon that crisps can be eaten as a treat, but he needs to show his parents that he will eat his meals if he wants crisps.

Jo implements a same-page technique where Alex and Heather can work on the same page. When Heather denies that she's disrespectful to him, Jo is able to help Alex explain what he means. From there, it's smooth sailing as they discuss their issues. Jo decides the family needs to get out of the house and go on a bike ride. When they return, Brandon tries orange juice. He's refused anything with fruit involved in the past so this is a small but sure step for him. His parents are rightfully proud of him too.

To make meal times more exciting, Jo has decided that Heather and Alex should make plates and decorate them for the boys. When Brandon sees that Zak has picked the good plate, he begins to get frusterated but he quickly relaxes and agrees to help his Father with the prepping. When it comes time to eat, the parents don't focus on their meal and instead talk about their second trip to the shops. When Brandon eats though, they praise him and he gets rewarded for it with his place-mat. With that, Jo's off to leave the family for the week.

Family Test Run

With Jo gone for a week, Brandon is still pressured by his parents at meal times making him resist. Despite this, he does make progress with his food. However, Heather and Alex go back to bickering with each other over who makes dinner. When dinner does come though, Brandon puts two stickers on his sheet. However, he still feels pressured. Because of this, he gets frustrated. He does continue to improve, though. He even tries Yogurt. However, the arguments have continued and they don't seem to be stopping anytime soon. By the end of the week, they have had enough of it, and make things easier for themselves by taking the boys to a fast-food drive-thru. They laugh at this when they see it on the DVD footage Jo brings in. Jo reprimands them for saying, "Mummy and Daddy have decided we're giving you a break," because it sent a negative message, saying that they have had enough, they don't trust the technique, and that they're worried that it could go on for longer than how long they want it to.

Reinforcement[]

After the DVD meeting, Jo implements a Little Chef technique that gets the boys involved in cooking the food and motivates them to eat. Jo also helps Brandon overcome his fear of food by having him plant vegetables, and understand where they come from. Over the next few days, Heather and Alex are communicating much better, Brandon is slowly overcoming his fear, and the Bixley family enjoys a roast dinner. Jo then leaves the Bixleys for good.

Update:

Three weeks have passed since Jo's left and now, the parents can take the boys to a restaurant with no fuss. Now, Brandon can tell the waitress what kind of potato and vegetable he wants. Heather no longer forces him to eat. Brandon is loving his vegetable garden too. It has inspired him to try multiple foods and has enjoyed the outdoors. With mum and dad not fighting as much, the house is happier.

Family Members[]

Person	Age	Relation to Family
Alex Bixley	35 (born 1970)	Father
Heather Bixley	40 (born 1965)	Mother
Brandon Bixley	7 (born 1998)	Son
Zak Bixley	4 (born 2001)	Son

The child was disciplined via one of Jo Frost's techniques, and was mistreated badly via one of the parents.

Fan Reception[]

The Bixley Family was considered to be one of the worst and most controversial episodes of the UK series, and was unanimously hated by fans. This was due to Heather, who was often considered one of the worst mothers from the UK series by many, as her actions made people both furious and shocked, primarily her force feeding of Brandon and aggressively spanking Zak at the mall in public.

Heather was in fact so hated amongst UK fans, that some have accused her of worsening Brandon's eating habits.

Alex on the other hand was liked by fans, because he sometimes went against Heather's force feeding, particularly when she rammed a spoon of yogurt down Brandon's face. The reasoning behind Brandon's refusal of food was due to suffering from gastroenteritis (a.k.a gastric flu or stomach flu) when he was a baby, according to the narrator. Many fans also sympathized with him for the mistreatment he was given by Heather, and praised Jo for how she used the Good Eater technique on both Brandon and Zak.

Moral: Force feeding your children will not help them overcome their sitophobia or any kind of eating disorder; as it would likely make it worse.

Overall, The Bixley Family is a widely hated episode of Supernanny, and will likely be in years to come.

Trivia[]

This was the only Supernanny UK episode and also in Supernanny history to feature a child with an eating disorder.
Brandon was speculated to have possibly also had a medical condition called ARFID, an eating disorder that causes people to be afraid of certain foods. Aside from his gastric flu, this likely explained why Brandon was acting up the way he did.
Despite the fact that Heather said to Brandon "you don't need to be be sick, you haven't eaten anything", is not true, as he can still have the tendency to vomit bile up from his stomach.
- Fans were also shocked when Heather aggressively shouted at Brandon to get in, while he attempted to run away from the kitchen.
In the Parents Meeting, Jo stated she came very close to having to pull Heather out of the kitchen from anger during the observation, from the way she was forcing Brandon to eat.
During the Teaching stage, Zak did not escape from the Naughty Step, and neither did Brandon on the Naughty Chair (though they may have escaped, but were not shown to have potentially done so. Possibly if they did, it likely would've been shown).
In 2025, Heather is 60, Alex is 55, Brandon is 27, and Zak is 24.

Gallery[]

Behind The Scenes[]

This episode was filmed in June 2005.

Songs[]

Supersize Me (Performed by Toothpick) in the McDonald's scene in the family test run
Unfinished Sympathy (Performed by Massive Attack) during the intro before the titles

Pop Culture[]

During the submission reel and dinner scene, Brandon was seen eating off a Thomas the Tank Engine plate and drinking out of a Scooby-Doo cup.
Brandon has Scooby Doo pajamas and stickers in his room seen briefly right before the parent meeting as the boys are heading to bed
During the mall scene, kiddie rides of Scoop from Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine appear.
Also in the mall scene, from a certain distance, a Vauxhall Astra Advertisement can be seen in the center of mall
A picture frame of Wallace and Gromit appears in the front porch of the house on the wall. The scene in the frame comes from the Cracking Contraptions short, The Snowmatron.
In the test run, Heather and Alex take the boys to McDonalds.

Links[]

Series 2
The Collins Family • The Hemingway-Clegg Family • The Pandit Family • The D Family • The Cooke Family • The Seniors Family • The Bradbury-Lambert Family • The A Family • The Young Family • The Ball Family • The Bixley Family • The Woods Family Return