The Van Acker Family is the fifth episode of Season 7 of the American Supernanny show.
Episode Summary[]
Jo visits the Van Acker family in Oak View, California where Kevin (35) & Jessica (34) have two children: 6-year-old daughter Emma and 3-year-old son Dylan.
While well behaved Emma is described by her parents to be a very spirited little girl and can be mischievous at times, Dylan rules the house with an iron will. Despite being only 3 years old, he refuses to be potty trained and constantly screams for a diaper when he has to use the bathroom. In addition, he downright refuses to eat any healthy and nutritious food and survives on sugary snacks. Due to this Dylan has become underweight and developed anemia.
Can Jo help the Van Ackers control their son? Can she help the parents get Dylan to eat, be potty trained and end his reign of terror in the Van Acker household?
Plot[]
Submission reel[]
Kevin and Jessica introduced the Van Acker family. They complained that Dylan won't let them potty train him and instead makes them put a diaper on him. Due to his unwillingness to eat anything but sugary snacks, he developed anemia.
Observation[]
Jo comes in and Dylan is already tired. It's lunch time. Dylan is given chicken nuggets, watermelon and carrots. He screams at Jessica for trying to cut his food and turns his head away and squeaks every time she tries to put the food towards his mouth. He pretends to put some watermelon in his mouth but doesn't. Kevin tells him to eat but he just shakes his head no. He finally eats a carrot but just spits it out. Finally, after 10 minutes his parents give up and let him leave and he asks for a snack. He goes into the pantry and eats an ice pop.
Dylan throws a tantrum while Jessica helps Emma with homework. She orders him to stop, which just encourages him. Finally, Jessica puts him in his room until he behaves. Jo goes in and notices he was playing with his trains instead of thinking about what he did.
Dylan throws a tantrum because he needs to pee and orders Jessica to put a diaper on him. Jessica tells him he should use the toilet but he responds with "diaper." She asks him if he needs to pee or poop but he responds with "diaper." She puts diaper on him and he runs out saying he peed in his diaper, much to Jessica's embarrassment. She takes it off of him. Dylan runs in the living room with his training potty and claims he's ready to use it. Nothing was coming out. Dylan justifies that it was because his "weiner" is too small. Jessica tells him to use the toilet but Dylan says he can't because he's scared. In her mind, Jo doesn't believe Dylan is actually scared.
It's dinner, where Dylan is given a corndog and corn, He was playing with the corndog, which Jessica tells him to stop. He spits out the corn.
Parent Meeting[]
Jo is worried about Dylan's unhealthy eating habits, attributing them to his ability to manipulate his parents into giving him snacks. Jo criticizes Jessica's use of a bedroom timeout and the parents admit to being lax in disciplining Dylan, making them easy to manipulate. Jo claims that Dylan isn't "scared" of sitting on the potty but he simply does not want to do it.
Teaching[]
After bringing in a list of items with high Iron content to make sure Dylan can progress in healthy eating habits, Jo helps Kevin & Emma shop with Emma using the involvement technique & helping to get the items. After cooking peas, chicken & corn for him, Dylan throws a major fit. Once the fit escalates, Jo steps in to teach the parents how to give a proper timeout by giving the firm warning. Dylan's fit continues. Jo believes Jessica didn't step up and initiate the timeout, so Jo steps up & puts him in timeout herself. After the timeout is finished, Dylan continues to act up and dumps his plate. Jessica steps up and does a timeout effectively but Dylan must still eat his dinner. When attempting to run away, Dylan accidentally knocks into a cabinet, although he isn't injured. Kevin is finally able to get Dylan to eventually eat some of his food once he realizes neither his dad nor Jessica would give in. More work is needed.
Kevin gets agitated with Emma based on dealing with Dylan, so Jo lets him know that if he only gets agitated with Emma over behavior, Emma will become afraid to interact with him. Jo suggests that Kevin be patient with Emma.
After taking away Dylan's diapers, Dylan has a fit and runs around the house without pants and throws a fit. The parents don't give in but Jo teaches them how to be firmer. After getting his clothes on, Jo establishes the bathroom setting with Dylan. Kevin helps Dylan through the potty process.
DVD Meeting[]
Jo praises the use of a positive timeout but explains that Jessica was too forceful when initiating the timeout. Jo praises dinner's time positive outcome but wants more praise for Dylan. Jo praises potty time as Jessica helps Dylan get through it but Jo wants to speed up the process.
Reinforcement[]
Dylan is playing with Lego's and Kevin helps Dylan get through the process faster by simply giving him less to work with and trying to focus more on the potty.
Finally, Jo wants to give more praise to the kids in the family using a magical phoenix which with its feathers, can be written on to give kids praise and can be turned into a story. Emma enjoys this praise delightfully. This praise will encourage the kids to continue their good behavior because they are given attention for it.
Family Members[]
| Person | Age | Relation to Family |
|---|---|---|
| Kevin Van Acker | 35 (born March 15, 1974) | Father |
| Jessica Van Acker | 34 (born August 31, 1975) | Mother |
| Emma | 6 (born November 28, 2003) | Daughter |
| Dylan | 3 (born October 10, 2006) | 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. |
Behind the Scenes[]
This was filmed in February 2010.
Transcript[]
The Van Acker Family/transcript
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is the 5th episode where the parents witnessed an accident. This also happened in The Amouri Family when Julian fell from a cabinet during bedtime, The Addis Family when Eden was running in the rain, The Krolikowski Family when Thomas hurt his head by jumping on Johnny's bed, and The Phelps Family when Aiden fell down the stairs during Jo's Observation.
- The latest episode to feature an accident was The Corry Family when Blakely hurt her eye after jumping off the couch (The Cameraman witnessed it and told Jo what happened). Ben took Blakely to the ER and got stitches for her during Jo's Teaching. This list does not include The Sutherland Family as Amy burning Rio by accident, happened before the episode begun production.
Pop Culture[]
- In the opening of the episode the announcer states “It’s Jo versus a three-year-old volcano!” This is a reference to the 1990 film ‘Joe Versus The Volcano.’
- Lego's are mentioned.
- Thomas and Friends toys along with the play table can be seen in Dylan's room.
- A Wii can be seen near the TV.
Events Post-Episode[]
- Jessica and Kevin divorced but the reason behind their divorce has yet to be confirmed.
- Kevin remarried to a woman named Traci, she also has children from another marriage.
Fan Reception[]
The Van-Acker Family is very disliked by fans. Whilst many understand his behaviour due to his age, Dylan was heavily disliked by fans for his relentless crying, continous tantrums, and overall fear of the potty. Many often consider him one of the most annoying, or even one of the worst children to ever appear on Supernanny. Whilst Jessica and Kevin have been praised for their efforts before and after Jo's visit, they were criticised for allowing Dylan to eat all the sugary things he did, and as a result, contract anemia. Many also criticised the way the Good Eater technique was used in this episode. Instead of positive encouragement, coercion and pressure was instead used to get Dylan to eat. Many have also pointed this out as completely missing the point of the technique; rather than use threats or even force (as shown in this episode), the Good Eater technique is meant to happily convince children into eating food they don't like. This kind of force would also be used in later episodes, especially in the The Colombo Family. Emma has also been sympathised with by people for the timeout she was given in this episode, as many state she should not have received it.
In general, The Van-Acker Family is a disliked episode of Supernanny.
External Links[]
- 3-Year Old Won't Eat Dinner - Supernanny US on YouTube
- Full Episode on YouTube
- Full Episode (Complete) on YouTube
- Jessica's Instagram
- Emma's TikTok
- Emma's Instagram (Private)
- Dylan's Instagram (Private)
| Season 7 |
|---|
| The Atkinson Family • The Peterfreund Family • The Swift Family • The Young Family • The Van Acker Family • The Fernandez Family • The George Family • The Miller Family • The Colombo Family • The Potter Family • The Merrill Family • The DeMott Family • The Froebrich Family • The Federico Family • The Evans Family |