The Moy Family

The Moy Family is the twentieth and last episode of Season 4 of the American Supernanny show.

Episode summary[]

In the Season 4 finale, Jo visits the Moy family in Lincoln, Nebraska where Michelle (37) and Harding (44) have three children: Hailey (11), Camryn (8), and Matthew (4).

With Harding working away from home Monday through Thursday every week, Michelle is left to care for the children. Michelle often has trouble dealing with her three quarrelsome kids, mainly due to constant sibling rivalry. Michelle also has trouble disciplining her eldest daughter, Hailey, because she doesn’t know what to do with her.

Hailey is becoming defiant and sassy, and has a strained relationship with both of her parents and her siblings, especially Camryn.

Camryn is also using attitude and defiance. She would argue and fight with her sister and her parents. Unlike Hailey, Camryn gets away with her behavior.

Meanwhile, Matthew is becoming spoiled and stubborn like his sisters, but unlike them, he throws temper tantrums if he doesn't get what he wants or his way. He doesn't like to be told no at all.

Jo later learns that the reason for Hailey's attitude is because of her dad's long absence and feeling that her mom doesn't trust and love her. Hailey feels like Michelle doesn't trust her because her mom gives more attention to her younger siblings, which makes Hailey very angry and jealous.

Can Jo help Hailey to bond with her parents and her siblings? Can she help Michelle learn to have some backbone, so she can discipline and praise her kids?

Transcript[]

The Moy family/Transcript

Episode Recap[]

Observation[]

After Jo meets the family, she asks Hailey and Camryn why they hate each other. After Hailey's fencing practice, on the drive home, Hailey was ignoring Michelle and hits her hand. Jo asks Michelle if it's an everyday occurrence. Michelle tried to punish Hailey by taking the TV away from her and said that she can get money by behaving. Back at home, Harding and Hailey's relationship is becoming strained, leading to Jo talking to Harding about his eldest daughter's behavior and his work business. Jo finally talks to Michelle about why she was crying in the car. Michelle confesses that she has lost her patience and it's all because of Harding working.

Parent Meeting[]

The next day Jo talks to Michelle and Harding about their family routine, their ineffective way of disciplining their children, and their relationship with Hailey.

Teaching[]

Jo begins teaching with Harding for 1 day before going to work. Jo has a dragon balloon, which Hailey uses to fence her feelings to. After that, Jo decides to get Harding and Hailey bonding more. to do so, she has the two do, Sumi-e painting, something Harding did with his father when he was Hailey's age. The two paint the words, Peace, Tranquility, Family and Love in Chinese. When Harding is ready to leave, Jo says her goodbyes to him, however Michelle is worried about how she'll be able to handle things on her own, now that Harding has gone off to work.

The next day before Jo arrives, Michelle and Hailey get into an argument about a game. Michelle sent Hailey to her room. When Jo arrives and asks Michelle about her morning, she starts crying. Once she calms down, Jo sets up the house rules.

After doing so, Jo takes Michelle and the girls to a homeless shelter to help out. Jo, Michelle and Hailey were putting aprons on, however to everyone's surprise, it was Camryn who started to act up. Michelle gave Camryn a warning, but she still continues to be disrespectful. Michelle eventually places her on the Naughty Chair. Even after her timeout, Camryn continues to be disrespectful. Jo stepped in and told Camryn to stop pulling inappropriate faces and think about her behavior. Camryn eventually lightens up and the four help serve out food.

Back at home, Jo wants Hailey and Camryn to create an English Garden. However, there is one problem; the girls don't know what one is. Jo goes through the steps for the garden, and Jo leaves the Moys for a couple of days. Leaving Michelle on her own.

Parents Evaluation[]

Jo returns to the Moy household and shows Michelle footage of how she did when she was away.

Clip 1[]

Harding gives the family a message, and later a phone call. Michelle throws a Dinner Party in celebration.

Clip 2[]

Hailey and Camryn plant the English Garden, using the steps Jo taught them to do so. Michelle was proud of the two.

Clip 3[]

Hailey and Michelle get into an argument, which results in Hailey being put in the Reflection Room. After the clip, Michelle started crying claiming that she wasn't doing a better job as a mother. Jo points out that when Hailey pushes her buttons, Michelle does tend to get angry and when this happens, it only antagonizes the situation, and she ends up making a mountain out of a molehill as a result when it isn't necessary. Instead, she advises to diffuse the situation and move forward. That said, Jo assures her that she did take one step in the right direction and that was incorporating discipline into a household that formerly had slim to none. Jo reminds Michelle that no parent has to be perfect, so she tells her to cut some slack and give herself a break. She adds that they're not moving backward, they're moving forward, and she would really like to focus on mending Michelle's relationship with Hailey.

Reinforcement[]

Jo starts her reinforcement by establishing Michelle and Hailey's relationship. She does so by having the two do rock climbing and on the way to the top, Michelle finds cards of things written down that Hailey needs from her. She reaches an especially emotional point when Hailey hands her the last card, which says "Love Me", which she needs the most from her mother. The two get emotional and share a hug at the end. Back at home Jo goes to see the now finished English Garden. Jo was astonished at how well the girls did, and Michelle solidifies it by taking a photo of it. After this, Jo leaves the Moy family.

Family Members[]

Under requests from the family, all birthdays have been removed. Please do not add them back. Otherwise, you will be reported to admins.

Person	Age (2007)	Relation to Family
Michelle Moy	38	Mother
Harding Moy	44	Father
Hailey	11	Daughter
Camryn	8	Daughter
Matthew	4	Son

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

The child was disciplined via one of Jo Frost's techniques, but not in a way that she approved of.

The child was not disciplined via one of Jo Frost's techniques, nor the technique itself was used, but the child was still warned that they would be disciplined if they continued misbehavior.

Events post-episode[]

Michelle and Harding divorced.
Michelle remarried. Her full name is now Michelle Smith. She is not to be confused with Michelle Smith, the mother from the sixth episode of Season 3.
Hailey came out as pansexual.
Camryn married David Meier on November 5, 2023.

Fan Reception[]

Fans had mixed responses about The Moy Family. On the positive side, Michelle was an honest, hardworking parent, even though she was struggling without much support from her spouse or understanding of how to address her children's behavior. Most fans have praised her commitment to Jo's programs and perseverance. They were also happy to see Harding taking the first steps to reconnecting with his family and Hailey and Camryn starting to get along at the end of the episode.

However, on the negative side, some fans outright hated this episode. They considered Michelle to be a terrible mother for allowing Hailey and Camryn's misbehavior to escalate to the point of regression. Camryn was criticized by many fans for being defiant and not sincerely apologizing to her mom for her misbehavior at the homeless shelter, especially when she made a smirk on her face during and after her timeout. However, many fans praised Jo for stepping in and calling her out. Although fans did not regard this episode with much contempt, they did balk at the daughters' disrespect toward each other and Michelle. Many fans criticized Harding's lack of connection toward his family. Finally, some fans criticized Michelle for putting Hailey in timeout, as they considered her to be too old for that method, even Jo did not approve it.

Although the Moy Family was considered to be a mediocre episode by fans and viewers overall, this family eventually came together to overcome their issues.

Trivia[]

Hailey was the 2nd oldest person in the series to be sent to timeout. The oldest being Anthony Walker, Jr. from The Walker Family, who was twelve when disciplined in this manner.
Camryn's name was misspelled as Camyrn. This was the third kid on Supernanny to have their name misspelled. The first was Brenden Swanson (misspelled as Brendon) while the second was Marlie Prescott (misspelled as Marli). Camryn was followed by Kristin Baulisch (misspelled as Kristen).
This episode was one of the few Asian American families Jo helped. The other families were The Jackson Family, The Duan-Ahn Family, and The Esquivel Family.
Hailey wears braces on her bottom teeth.
Hailey and Harding write in traditional Chinese. The four characters that they displayed were 家 (jiā, family). 愛 (ài, love), and 和平 (hé píng, peace).
The Moy Family coincidentally shared some traits and similarities with other families featured in Season 4:
- The Duan-Ahn Family: The Moys (with the exception of Michelle) are likely Chinese, just like the Duan-Ahns. This was reflected in the Sumie characters that Hailey and Harding write.
- The Clause Family:
  - Both Lorie Clause and Michelle broke down in the DVD Review because they felt like they had failed to adhere to Jo's techniques.
  - The two oldest Moy children (Hailey and Camryn) were the same ages as Brandon and Caila. Hailey and Brandon were both 11, while Camryn and Caila were both 8.
- The Schumacher Family:
  - In both episodes, Jo attempted to instill the values of humility and hard work in spoiled, selfish daughters by having them perform charity work (Camryn Moy and Jessica Schumacher).
  - Both families had three children, the eldest two of which were female and the youngest of which was male.
  - All three Moy children were three years younger than their counterparts in the Schumacher Family.

Behind the Scenes[]

This episode was filmed on November 2007.

Pop Culture []

A Thomas and Friends box was seen when Matthew and Michelle were fighting over a hamper in the submission reel.
Hailey and Camryn have a Cinderella bed sheet.
The family has a Windows XP computer. The logo was blurred to avoid copyright issues.
Michelle drives a 2006 Honda Odyssey EX.
The obstacle course that Michelle and Hailey utilized in the Reinforcement was also featured in the Boot Camp portion of seasons 2-3 of American Ninja Warrior. Every day, the two teammates from the weakest team were required to climb up the Heavenly Ropes, which was a pair of ropes that hung from the top of that obstacle course. The competitor who climbed the rope in the fastest time was safe from elimination, while the loser would be eliminated.
- Interestingly, the American Ninja Warrior competitors never climbed the vertical obstacle course itself, which only served as a supporting structure for the Heavenly Ropes. Furthermore, the course featured in this episode was highly unlikely to be the exact same structure used in Boot Camp; 2 years passed in between Season 4 of Supernanny and Season 2 of American Ninja Warrior. Furthermore, the Moy Family's episode took place in Nebraska while Boot Camp took place in California.