The Davis Family: The WORST Family On Supernanny (Pt. 2)

Welcome to Part 2 on the Davis Family saga, where we observe one of the most dysfunctional family to ever air on Supernanny.

I highly suggest you read Part 1 first for more context, but let's recap from last time. What's wrong with this family?

• Phil is lazy and misogynistic, forcing his wife and daughters to do all the chores.
• Phil has anger problems and will scream swear words and slurs at his children.
• Phil is violent and "punishes" his kids via the belt or his bare hands.
• Phil makes weird comments sexualizing his teen daughter's clothing and slut-shames her.
• Debbie does jackshit seeing her children being abused and bullied.
• Morgan is parentified in her own house and is failing school as a result of it.
• The younger girls and Phillip witness unfiltered abuse everyday and are suffering.

...hmm...there's a LOT wrong with this family, and I don't think Jo alone can fix this. We should get CPS here. Or the police, preferably someone else. But let's see what she does.

PART 2: Fixing This Family 

Jo begins her meeting, and she starts it by saying "There are some...serious issues that need to be adressed..." That's one way to put it.

The Cathartic Call-Out

Jo immediately comes for Phil and calls him out for his outdated household expectations for women, and his blatant lack of responsibilities in the household. Starting off strong, I see. By the way, the whole time, he has this weird annoying smirk like he wants to argue, but he knows he's not in the right to. 

Why are you smiling, you weirdo? She's calling you out on being misogynistic!

She then addresses the fact he slut shames Morgan, to which he has a GENIUS excuse for...

Jo: "The man who raised her, since she was 3 years old...calls her a SLUT and called her a HOE yesterday!" 

Phil: "No, what I was saying I didn't want her to dress like one-" (?)

Jo: "That's what you called her."
Phil: "I'm not saying I called her a slut, I said if you want to dress like one, is what I said." (!!!)

Jo: "I was there."

Phil: "That's what I said-" (shut your mouth)

Jo: "Phil".

Phil: "That's what I'm saying, you can't, that's what I'm trying-" (T^T)

Jo: "Phil. Phil. I don't even think you know what you say when you're angry."

WOW. Just-...wow. The gaslighting he tried to do to undermine his atrocious behavior is disturbing. In what universe would saying your daughter dresses like a slut be better?! I feel like he's used these manipulation tactics on his wife and Morgan in the past. Thankfully, because Jo won't stand down, Phil's attempt at gaslighting are broken down, and he's realizing Jo-...well, he said it, has put him in his place. But he still tries to argue, and-

Jo: "You fly off the handles, you're like a bull-"

Phil: "You think she should show her cleavage at 14-"

Jo: "She wasn't."

W JO! GET REKT PHIL!

For once someone in his life is telling him off instead of giving in to his control. She then calls him out on his abusive discipline methods, and how they have the ironic opposite effect. Instead of teaching these kids to be smart, respectful, and improve themselves, he's teaching them to tolerate violence and be violent themselves. As she puts it, the kids are being raised in "constant earthquakes", and it's "breaking their spirits". He has nothing to say for this. Good. You shouldn't. Jo describes Phil perfectly:

"Overpowering, dominating...fueled by anger, you are a bully. And all you're doing is breaking down your relationships, your marriage, and causing more and more destruction."

Exactly. He's not a father, he's a bully. Bullies want control. They feed on humiliating and being seen as bigger than others. From Phil's perspective, he demands respect, but never wants to give respect either. If no one intervenes, it's going to destroy this household. One day, when their children grow up, they'll want no contact with them, and it'll be entirely their fault.

After calling Phil out, she rightfully turns to Debbie and says "and you allow this to happen", as the mom says nothing and dips down in the light shame she has, on the verge of tears. GOOD.

You know what this image personifies? Shame. Really. It's just shame.

I'm glad the mom got called out as well, because once again: although I blame a lot of problems in this household on Phil's abusive behavior, and I sympathize with Debbie, at the same time it's almost equally abusive to not stand up for your own children and let this go on for years, making both you and your family absolutely miserable. As Jo puts it:

"And the reason you gave me? 'Because I want my family to be together.' That's the price your prepared to pay is it? Just to keep your family all under one roof, you're prepared to DESTROY and BREAK the SPIRITS?"

Exactly x2. Even if she is a still victim in this abusive household, at the end of the day, your children should not be a last priority. She keeps getting back with Phil, she refuses to finalize a divorce, all so things can just stay the same. And even if it's easier, it's going to destroy these kids' mental health so bad that once again- they will probably avoid contact with their parents and be damaged for years to come.

"I expect 100% commitment, I expect an open mind, I expect you to accept the change, I expect you both to listen to me, and HARD WORK. Cuz trust me, this ain't gonna be no walk in the park..." - Jo

So, with that, it's time for Jo to start intervening. Now, before we examine her attempts to improve the family, I have to admit: I am sadly not that optimistic Jo can save this family. Jo already has to go through a lot to improve basic families, like teaching proper discipline, teaching parents to be confident, and establishing routines. 

..So, how are you going to fix a horrifically abusive father, a permissive apathetic mother, a teen girl clearly parentified and in a bad situation because of this, and all the younger girls who are being traumatized by all of this?...and...Phillip Jr, we can't forget him. It's gonna take a lot of work. We'll go through 5 exercises Jo does to improve this family, ranging from "unique" to constructive. Let's give this whole thing a shot. Speaking of which...

The Davis Family: The WORST FAMILY on Supernanny (Pt. 1)

Child abuse.

These two words are very upsetting and triggering to many people. Abusing, torturing, and hurting anything is bad. 

But to abuse a child, a poor, innocent, extremely vulnerable person who has never done anything wrong to you...is a special type of an evil. An evil that no one should justify or understand. An evil that must be stopped.

An evil that's sadly more common than we think.

Which brings us to one of the most infamous examples of real child abuse seen on live television: The Supernanny episode:

The Davis Family.

WARNING: This episode contains possibly triggering content relating to child abuse, both verbal and physical. There's discussion relating to toxic home environments, domestic abuse, slut shaming, and misogyny. Viewer discretion advised!

Yes, I have to put this warning on a SUPERNANNY episode! 

FWI...

If you don't know what already know what Supernanny is, it's a reality TV-show based from Britain about a woman named Jo Frost, who specializes in helping broken families, struggling parents, and misbehaving kids. Most often or not it's portrayed as if she's fixing "bad children", when in reality she's fixing bad parents. 

The episode we'll be discussing, "The Davis Family", is no different. It was the 14th episode of Season 5. You can learn more about the episode, it's reception, and etc. by visiting the Supernanny wiki: https://supernanny.fandom.com/wiki/The_Davis_Family_(Season_5)

You can also watch the full-episode (uncensored) here:

Already, looking at the thumbnail of a girl about to cry, and the title "Foul-mouthed father ruins all family relationships", you can tell this episode's going to be heavy.

Here's a drinking game (that applies to all parts). Take a shot anytime I say:

• toxic
• misogyny / misogynistic
• abuse / abusive
• wow / woah
• stop
• apathy / apathetic
• hell
• abuse / abusive
• parent / parentified
• sexualize
• shame
• poor

Stalling aside, let's begin, shall we?

PART 1: Meeting the Family

All Supernanny episodes begin with Jo riding a car and watching a Demo Reel of the family, submitted by the parents. Today's no different, as we meet the Davises from Florida.

Family Preview

Trust me, you're going to hate seeing these faces soon. Especially his.

Let's introduce ourselves to the family. The parents are Debbie and Phil respectively, and they have 5 children:

• Morgan (14) - eldest daughter
• Phillip Jr. (9) - only son
• Madison (4)
• Tiffany (3)
• Tori (2)

The Davis Family (excluding Debbie)

The younger 3 daughters, who are absolutely adorable by the way, Madison, Tiffany, and Tori, will frequently be grouped together as simply "the girls". Morgan will also have an important role in this story. And for Phillip Jr, we actually don't really get to meet him. Aside from seeing him on camera and him being mentioned occasionally, he doesn't even speak a single line the episode. Which could either be interpreted him as being shy or...scared. We'll talk about that later.

Anyway, Phil is a water-plant operator and Debbie is a commercial-insurance sales producer. Seems like an average American family household.

For at least 10 seconds, until the drama already begins. We immediately learn that Phil is actually Morgan's step-dad, not biological dad, which already gives you a hint their relationship might not be the strongest. This is quickly supported by the first of many infuriating scenes in the episode:

"Morgan was up here watching 'em and look what she let them do!" Uh...your referring to you.

Phil is on the couch, and Debbie notices the girls' got their toys all over the floor, so she tells Phil to help clean up. However, he then says that's Morgan's responsibility, which- no, it's not? Your the DAD, you're the one supposed to be helping? Also, notice how on the right, it appears Morgan is doing her homework. She should be focusing on that, Phil.

Phil then hints at his misogyny by explaining what he thinks his wife should do:

"First thing a wife should do is she should have the house cleaned before she leaves, she should have the kids ready in a decent time, when she gets home from work, which, ey-, you sitting on your rear end all day."

Yes. He actually says this about his own wife. Hey, Phil, what do you do? Your WIFE is the one who cleans, your WIFE is the one who gets the kids ready, but what do YOU do, other than...well..."sitting on your rear end all day"? You can tell this man has seriously outdated and kind of sexist opinions on what women are supposed to do. And look at Debbie, stuck in this awkward marriage.

They Debbie talks about how the mornings here are awful. It takes over an hour just to get a sleepy Morgan ready, and at the same time, she has to help get her sisters ready for daycare. No one cooperates, and it often means the family is late to everything.

"Morgan does help me do that, she complains about it, whines about it, but it's what we have to do."

Wait...what do you mean WE?! Morgan's 14! While it's great for older siblings to help around the house, imagine Morgan having to do such work to get her sisters ready and under control when her parents should be doing most of that. She has to get to school herself, mind you.

This all tells me how much Morgan is parentified in this house. Instead of being able to focus on what she needs to do, she's essentially parenting her sisters all the time. She has to pick up their toys, she has to help get them ready, she probably has to get them to bed as well. No wonder Morgan takes forever to wake up, she's probably always tired from helping his sisters all the time!

Not only is Morgan stressed out from essentially being her sister's 2nd mother, but her constantly being late, having trouble sleeping, and not being able to catch up with her schoolwork is even causing her to fail school.

"I'm a straight A student, but I'm failing my first period because I'm always late.

How do you allow this?! Poor Morgan should be focusing on school, not her younger sisters.