Nanny TV: Supernanny and Nanny 911

[borborygmus]

eataknobatnight said:

I love Jo on Supernanny, and I quote her all the time: Yoh chy-od is sleeping the coh-nah! It's noht noh-mal! It's noht roit!

Also Team Jo!

I find myself saying "That's unasSEPtabuw!" a lot. Because many things are.

The other night, I think it was a rerun with the older guy (60s maybe) and his wife who was at rope's end. I seriously thought that Jo would call her on the camera footage that showed her Bedtime War with the kids. Now, it took 2 hours of wrangling to get the darlings to stay in their beds and sleep, but she was flinging the kid around by its (not sure if boy or girl) arm and *throwing* it into its bed repeatedly! Seemed kind of abusive to me, but Jo was all like, "Good job! You stayed with it even though it was hard." I hate to see kids dragged by one arm...

[Mugsy]

So I watched a Supernanny doubleheader last night; I think they were new eps. New to me anyway.

The first one wasn't too bad. The parents were just overprotective, following the kids around all the time and not giving them any freedom. They bought a HUGE camper but hadn't used it because the mom was afraid of what might happen if she couldn't control her kids in unfamiliar territory. Jo really helped them, using red cloths to mark boundaries at the campsite so the kids could have the freedom to wander around on their own. The parents were pleasant and smart, not your usual clueless morons. Plus, they only had three kids, instead of the usual 5 or 6 within 4 years.

The second ep, however, was heartbreaking. Two teen sisters pretty much had all the responsibility for cleaning and cooking and caring for their three preschool brothers while the parents worked. What about school, you say? They were "homeschooled", in that they used online classrooms, but were falling behind because they spent most of their day tending to their squalling brothers.

I didn't really understand why the homeschooling, since it wasn't for religious or education philosophy reasons - it seemed like it was only done for free childcare, which is appalling. The mom was home until after lunch, but the girls still made breakfast and did all the cleaning. She was even ragging on one of them for delaying vacuuming at one point because the girl said, "it would get dirty again when everyone came home, so she'd do it after that" to which the mom replied, "So you're only gonna vacuum once a day?"

I guess I'm horrid, because the house is lucky if it gets vacuumed once a day. But then, my teenage daughter is not my personal servant. I didn't really get what the dad did, and why he was rarely home. Incidentally, it was the teen girls who called Supernanny, not the parents. The boys were not that terribly behaved; the girls just didn't know how to parent them (!).

It is interesting that so many of these nanny-callers have children spaced very close together and almost all have twins. Although, if you have a toddler and then you have twins, why they have yet another baby or two right after that is beyond me.

[Deleted]

I watched the double header as well and my heart broke for those teenage girls. What selfish assholes their parents were. I hope things work out for that family.

I loved the granny in the first episode. She was just too cute and I think that now I want my future grandkids to call me Mimi just like her. How she has such physical strength with those kids is beyond me. She couldn't have weighed more than 90 lbs!

[Mugsy]

According to the snoops on TWOP, ABC has been inundated with outraged calls about this family, as has Child Protective Services or whatever it's called in the U.S. Apparently the girls are back in school and the boys are in daycare now.

[Deleted]

I live about 25 miles from where the Chapman family is from.

They have been inundated with phone calls, emails and I guess death threats over this. They can't speak to the media because of their contract with ABC, but a family spokesperson has been. I guess it's gotten so bad they're afraid they're going to have to move.

I don't normally watch SN, but did because I knew the family was from the area. I just can't believe they would allow themselves to be shown like that. I know they have to sign waivers and all that crap, so why in the WORLD would people let the world know what shitty parents they are? Are people that desperate to be on TV?

[Mugsy]

Yes. Yes, they are.

Seriously, though, death threats? What is the matter with some people? If you don't like a reality show participant, in what universe does it seem right to send them a death threat? But, as friends who lost a baby to SIDS can attest, there are crazies out there whose entire life revolves around reading the obits and sending letters to the bereaved, accusing them of doing it. So I'm assuming it's the same types who would threaten death to strangers on TV. Some people are nuts.

[Deleted]

sarcasticcheese said:

I just can't believe they would allow themselves to be shown like that. I know they have to sign waivers and all that crap, so why in the WORLD would people let the world know what shitty parents they are? Are people that desperate to be on TV?

I've known parents just like the Chapmans and people like that do not believe they're doing anything wrong. I think the parents thought Jo would come in and tell the girls how to better raise their sons and do housework. They probably thought the girls would be told to stop whining and that these were normal chores.

The sit-down with the father and his daughters made my skin crawl. I'd bet my life savings that that man was not remotely sincere. I think those poor girls are going to be paying for this the rest of their lives.

[Deleted]

I always wondered how long it would be before there would be a celebrity version of Supernanny:

Wendy Wilson seeks help from 'Supernanny'
Published: Jan. 29, 2008 at 1:21 PM

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. pop singer Wendy Wilson and her husband, Dan Knutson, are to be the first celebrity couple to seek help with their children on the TV show "Supernanny."

Knutson, a former rock singer, and Wilson, a former member of the pop trio Wilson-Phillips, are the parents of four boys -- two rambunctious toddlers and newborn twins.

Exhausted and overextended, the couple is to appear on "Supernanny" to learn some new strategies for dealing with their busy brood from the supernanny herself, Jo Frost, ABC said in a statement.

The episode is set to air Feb. 20.

Link

[ivy]

Wendy Williams and Dan Knutson? They could make an episode about them without using the word "celebrity" in the title and nobody would ever know the difference. They aren't even as famous as the people on "The Surreal Life".

[garnet927]

I'd love to see the Supernanny interact with some of the larger broods often seen on cable TV ( Jon & Kate Plus 8 or the Duggars).