Episode
Supernanny: Martinez Family
Overview
Dad, Sindo, is a civilian contractor in Iraq, leaving his wife, Michelle, home alone for five months at a time with three rambunctious children -- Sindo, 9, Ashley, 7, and Mikey, 6. Mom is easily overwhelmed and rides a daily rollercoaster of emotions, waiting for Dad's regular email to reassure her that he has survived another day. Her frequent crying, yelling and overreaction to the kids prompts the children to respond in kind with hostility and behavior that quickly spirals out of control. Ashley throws giant temper tantrums in public, so Mom is reluctant to take the children out. She feels enormous pressure to fill the role of both mother and father, and though Dad calls as often as he can, phone warnings hold little threat when he's half a world away.
Details
- Series
- Supernanny
- Season
- Season 4
- Episode
- Episode 17
- Air date
- 2008-05-07
- Runtime
- 60 min
Episode context
Martinez Family is Episode 17 in Season 4 of Supernanny. It aired on 2008-05-07. The runtime is 60 min.
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Episode 16: Clause Family
The Clause kids -- Brandon, 10 and Caila, 8 -- are "tweenage terrors," disrespectful, manipulative and resentful, but the key to change rests with their parents. Mom is a pushover, and Dad is too laid back and laissez faire. Entering their pre-teen years, these kids are at a critical point when they need a solid relationship with their parents, which is lacking now. Behind the kids' backtalk, swearing, verbal threats and toddler-like tantrums are years of dysfunction, disorder and chaos. Dad especially fears never having a close relationship with his kids and losing them completely.
Episode 18: Browning Family
It's a full house for Reverend Browning and his industrious wife, Bernadette, as they try to maintain peace in their well-appointed suburban home where the six children range in age from toddler all the way up to college age. Mom is so busy running her real estate business from home that she doesn't have time for the kids. Mom and Dad want their home to be a sanctuary, but it's becoming a battleground.
More episodes from this season
Episode 15: Schrage Family
"It's musical beds," the sheepish dad, Kyle, admits about his family of five, and the parents haven't slept in the same bed in eight years! Jo actually tucks mom into bed with two of the kids during observation time, and later says it's amazing the couple ever had three children, considering how little time they have alone. Stay-at-home Mom Christy drags through the day, too timid to enforce boundaries or discipline for fear her children won't like her, and too detached to engage her lively young girls, Ellie (10), Emma (6) and Cara (4), during playtime. The walls throughout the house are covered with the kids' graffiti. Live-in grandma "Memaw" has little privacy, as her grandchildren troop in and out of her rooms with no respect for her belongings. In addition, four-year-old Cara still uses a pacifier because Christy is prolonging her youngest's babyish tendencies.
Episode 19: Doyle Family
The Doyle children all attend a daycare where Lizzie (three) has a record of complaints from other kids and parents that's got her on the brink of being kicked out of the pre-school. Five-year-old Sara is busy cutting her own hair with her mom's sewing kit, and young Andrew (18 months) is developing his own attitude based on his two sisters' bad behavior. Jo will have a chance to take her skills into the classroom to help Brandy and Dwight Doyle get their children to be more respectful out in public as well as at home.
Episode 14: Citarella Family
The four Citarella kids, ages seven, six, three and one, run "a three-ring circus around me," according to Mom Debbie. In spite of the chaos, she laughs all the time, even as her children flout her rules. Dad Joe admits that his kids' uncontrollable behavior has taken the fun out of parenting, and he retreats by wearing earplugs whenever he drives the kids around. He's a police officer in a small town, but three-year-old daughter Sarah has taken to shoplifting! Even baby Joshua at one year is a feisty "brute" who defies his parents' wishes. A simple trip to the drug store with the four children sets off all kinds of acting out, and an overwhelmed Debbie becomes panicky and breathless. Jo has some stern words for the laughing mom, who Jo thinks isn't serious about changing.
Episode 20: Moy Family
Since Dad, Harding, has taken a job that requires him to travel away from home Monday through Thursday every week, his oldest daughter, Hailey, 11, acts out, setting the tone for behavior for her siblings, who then misbehave too. Hailey openly discusses how much she hates her sister, eight-year-old Camryn. She pulls her sister's hair and belittles her, trashes her four-year-old brother Matthew's projects and defies discipline around the clock, driving her helpless mom, Michelle, to tears. Hailey even hits her mother when she doesn't like what she hears. When Dad's at home, he is no more effective in enforcing discipline.
Episode 13: Addis Family
Still reeling from the sudden loss of their live-in grandfather, the entire Addis family is in turmoil. Granddad was actually the man of this family. Dad is now struggling to fill his father-in-law's shoes and claim his role as patriarch. With four out-of-control and disrespectful children at home all day long, Mom is juggling the demands of three jobs at once -- mother, homemaker and home-school teacher to her four children.
Episode 21: Krolikowski Family
Shannon and John both have high profile jobs at a large church, but their home is a far cry from a peaceful sanctuary. All four of their children fight with each other so viciously and so frequently that mom usually intervenes only if someone has drawn blood. That happens regularly because the kids bite, pinch, kick and pull hair for all they're worth. Mom's yelling isn't working, and Dad says he spanks to discipline, since he doesn't believe that timeouts or talking work. But in spite of the hardline tactics, neither parent has much authority.
Episode 12: McKeever Family
Jo faces the most aggressive and foul-mouthed duo ever in the McKeever boys, Hunter, 7, and River, 6. They greet her by hitting her and calling her names, shocking, but sadly typical, because they are both extremely violent and disrespectful. In fact, they persist in hitting and kicking Jo throughout her work with the family. Days and nights are filled with the terrible twosome destroying the home, using potty language, as well as smacking, kicking, and biting each other and their parents. Stay-at-home mom Lisa is so embarrassed by the boys that she doesn't want to go out in public with them, and her husband Corey works long hours, avoids interacting with his sons when he's home, and shockingly, claims Lisa has it "easier" than he does. Jo has a heated exchange with Corey, telling him to grow up and end his selfishness, and he angrily walks out of the room.
Episode 11: Banjany Family
Lisa and Rich Banjany of Staten Island, New York have a home business, Confuzzled Cookies, which has taken off like a rocket. But they have no control over their three kids -- twin five-year-olds Cameron and Zoe, and Blake, three -- which threatens to affect the promising start-up while making daily home life miserable. Blake likes to play dress up with his sister, which concerns Dad greatly. The boys fight like barroom brawlers, and though Zoe is usually well-behaved, when she's not, she's a complete handful -- and she establishes an ignominious "Supernanny" record, taking three and a half hours to stay put for a five-minute timeout. Any attempt at drawing the line between work and home life is "confuzzled" indeed! Lisa admits the kids are running the household when they act out, bite their parents and snack out of the pantry and fridge all day long.
Episode 10: Prescott Family
Kadi and Daniel Prescott have seven children, ranging in age from one year to eight. Kadi's own father left her family when she was just 13, after coming out of the closet. Kadi is still hurting from this experience of abandonment, and her husband, Daniel, is resistant to their young family having a closer relationship with her dad because of his sexuality. This emotional distance from her own father is a true heartache for Kadi, who also feels she's falling short as a mother: She loses her temper too frequently with the kids, especially with seven-year-old Daniel, who was recently diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. She relies on her oldest daughter, Marli, who's eight, to be the "mini-Mom," as Jo says, giving the youngster more responsibility than the other kids combined. On top of all this, Kadi doesn't have any friends within 45 minutes of their home, and feels lonely and isolated. Enter Jo, who tries to bridge the gap between Kadi's father and the family, help Kadi build a support network, and show both parents how to manage Daniel better.
Episode 9: Tafoya Family
Holly and Jimmy Tafoya can’t quite figure out why cursing, spanking and washing their kids’ mouths out with soap aren’t working as discipline tactics. And when Supernanny steps in, Holly shows her the door!