ny." I meet a family on
the verge of collapse. Stop it. Die! HOST (VOICEOVER):
Eight-year-old Austin has ADHD. You're choking him. HOST (VOICEOVER): And the
family lives in fear of him. Oh my god, stop. What are you thinking? HOST (VOICEOVER):
And then there's Aryel, a 12-year-old
going on 20. Seriously, don't
take my phone. HOST (VOICEOVER): And
because Dad's disabled, Mom has to cope alone. You know daddy
can't carry you. Quit. HOST (VOICEOVER): And when
faced with violence, she folds. I don't follow any
rules except my own. You have to
learn how to parent and take the control back. HOST (VOICEOVER):
So I'm stepping in with some new ideas-- Let's throw it out. Go, go, go, go! HOST (VOICEOVER): --a
take-charge attitude. The bottom line is,
the makeup's coming off. HOST (VOICEOVER): --and
my expert opinion-- That's his behavior. That's not ADHD. HOST (VOICEOVER): --to
fix this broken family-- You've got to do better,
man, because I know you have it in you. HOST (VOICEOVER):
--before things get seriously out of hand. You Austin? I need to talk to
you for a minute. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): My
name is Deborah Tillman. I'm a wife, a mother,
and my child care centers are amongst the
best in the country. I've dealt with every kind of
kid and every kind of family. They don't have the problem. You have the problem. The dog pees and
poops over there? This is a madhouse. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): Some
people call me a miracle worker. I'm glad you're here. But you can call me
America's Supernanny. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): This week
I'm in Somerville, Georgia to meet the Edwards family. Listen to your momma now. - Listen.
- No. No. No. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): There's
Mary, the overworked mom. He just got his
toys down, Duke. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): Duke, a
retired contractor suffering from chronic pain. Give me your phone. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER):
12-year-old Aryel, a young girl with an adult-sized attitude. Fine, take it. Bye. Whatever. Nope. You're not-- you're not gonna-- DEBORAH (VOICEOVER):
Eight-year-old Austin, who terrorizes his family. Quit. Brandon? DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): And
seven-year-old Brandon, who acts like a baby. Stand up. Brandon. No, dummy. Don't call me dummy. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER):
Mom and dad have zero control over the children. Seriously, don't
take my phone. Yes, give it here. We're not consistent
with the kids at all. Go to your room. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): And
the children run wild. (SCREAMING) Get it! No. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): Austin
has been diagnosed with ADHD and displays some
seriously violent behavior. Austin will throw things. He'll knock holes in the doors
and scream and yell at us. Die in a ditch. Die! When Austin's not
happy, nobody's happy. Nobody's happy. My neck's about to kill me. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): Duke was
in a car accident that left him in chronic pain, and it's
affecting his parenting. You know daddy
can't carry you. Quit. I can't stand up and be
the parent that I need to be. You know, I feel guilty a lot. That that's not amusing. We've gotten to the point that
we pretty much don't know what to do with the children anymore. Get off the table. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER):
I've got to get in there and clean up this mess. We just are out of options. We really do need
some help and guidance. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER):
Before someone gets hurt. Quit. Hi. Hi, come in. I'm Mary Edwards. When Deborah arrived,
as soon as she walked in I had a sense
of calm, like things-- things were going to get better. Hi. - Hi.
- I'm Aryel. Hi, Aryel. And aren't you pretty? Thank you. - How you doing today?
- Good. I'm fine.
I'm Miss Deborah. - Miss Deborah.
- Nice to meet you. I'm Duke Edwards. And so our little ones? They are still asleep. Well, I'm here
observing today. And so just be the
way you normally are so that I'm able to detect
exactly what's going on. Mom went to wake
up the boys, but it wasn't like any kind of
wake-up I had ever seen before. You ready to wake up? You hungry? What you want for breakfast? Root beer. Daddy, he wants root beer. DUKE: Root beer? Hold on. MARY: Austin, we
gotta wake up now. Austin, what do you want to eat? You want cereal? These kids get breakfast in
bed and mom's the waitress? Are you kidding me? And they're drinking sugary
drinks with breakfast? Oh wow, there's way too
much soda in this house. Austin, sit up. Here's your breakfast. Don't spill. DEBORAH: He just eats
on the bed like that? He doesn't come to the table? He won't come to the table. Austin has ADHD and takes
medication for his ADHD. DEBORAH: OK. So it's important
for him to get breakfast early in the
morning, and that's what works. ADHD stands for Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It's a condition that
affects millions of kids and makes it hard for them
to stay focused and control their behavior. Good nutrition is
important for all children. But to watch this
child, who already has a behavioral problem,
drinking all of this soda? That's crazy to me. Come on, let's
get you dressed. When mom told the boys,
let's get you dressed, I didn't think she
meant it literally. OK. But that's exactly
what she meant. She actually puts
these boys' clothes on while they're laying in bed. Let's check on Austin. You done? All right, call me back
when you're done, OK? We'll get you dressed. He's eight, and
you dress him too? Yes. Why? Because it's easier. He'll just lay there
and won't do it. I've never seen it in
my 20 years of experience. I've never seen children who are
seven and eight who don't know how to dress
themselves, who don't know how to put their
toothpaste on the toothbrush. These children are
treated like infants. These children are not
learning self-reliance. They're not learning
responsibility. And they're not
learning independence. And that is a problem. 12-year-old Aryel is
the complete opposite of her brothers. She seems very independent. So I wanted to get
more information. How's your relationship
with Aryel? Oh, I'm good. Good. - I'm Uncle Duke, you know?
- Uncle duke? Uncle. I am her mother's uncle. I'm Aryel's great uncle. We've had Aryel since
she was three years old. She's lived with us. The biological mom
and dad are split up, and she doesn't
have a relationship with her biological mom. But she does with her dad. DEBORAH: Preteens often
struggle with identity issues. And for children who are
adopted or in foster care, their growing pains
can be magnified. I wanted to talk to Aryel to
see if she would open up to me. What kinds of things
do you like to do? Go places my
friends and stuff. DEBORAH: Do you?
- Yeah. You like to dress
up and everything? Well, I dress
up like every day. I'm just like, OK, gotta make
sure my makeup's good, my hair. Do I look cute today? I do that. You don't to do much
to look good, right? Yes. I put a lot of makeup on. And what happens if you--
or you wouldn't go without it? I can't, because
I'd look dead. You'd look dead? Yeah, because my eyes
are like small without it. I have, like, weird eyes. You know, this is
a girl, 12 years old. Pre-teen, low self-esteem. A lot of insecurities. All of those are telltale
signs that a young girl is headed for self-destruction. They told me about your dad. You see him sometimes? I haven't seen
him in a long time. You miss him sometimes? Yeah, but it
doesn't bother me. I mean, I just call
him and stuff whenever I feel like talking to him. DEBORAH: When I asked her
about her biological father, it was all in her face. You could just see,
a wall came up. She's going to be a
hard shell to crack. [yelping] Quiet down, son. Daddy's gotta run
pay some bills. You'll be a good
boy while I'm going? Yeah, sure. DEBORAH: Dad left
to run some errands. And as soon as the door
shut, Austin went ballistic. AUSTIN (SCREAMING): Die.
Die. Die. MARY: Austin. [screaming] MARY: Stop. I don't like the words
coming out of your mouth. Austin? [screaming] Quit. DEBORAH: Austin looked like
he was a challenging boy from the beginning, you know? Right out the gate. I'm gonna murder
the Easter Bunny. Die, die, die! Calm down, Austin. No, no, no, no, no. You pop my wrist, you die. Stop. Stop. Stop it. Die. That's not funny. [screaming] MARY: You're choking him. Hey, I need you
home now, please. Mary didn't even try
to discipline Austin. I could see she felt
totally helpless. MARY: Uh-uh. No. DEBORAH: Austin had the
whole family in panic mode. MARY: Stop. When will you stop? Never. Stop it. DEBORAH: His behavior
was so out of control, I could see they were terrified. MARY: Oh my god, stop! What are you thinking? I'm joking. That is not even funny. Do you know how dangerous
it is to play with knives? I could tell Austin pulled
a knife to get a rise out of his mother. But behavior like that could
get him sent straight to jail. I'm not playing a
game with you, Austin. You're in trouble. Yippy-aye-yay. And this is normal behavior? This is how he normally
is just all the time? And it seems like until
his medicine kicks in, he says a lot of times,
medicine, my medicine, this. It's like an excuse. But where does the ADHD
stop and the behavior start? I don't know. AUSTIN: Mommy, can you hug me? It's like two
different extremes. He can't just be normal. He's like the calmest,
nicest or he's like throwing
stuff, acting crazy, like mental institution stuff. DEBORAH: When Dad got back from
his errands, Mom filled him in. You need to be
in timeout, son. DEBORAH: I was
definitely curious to see what Dad's timeout looked like. You lay there for a
while and don't you get up. OK. You understand me? Die! That's not funny. I need you to be a good boy. AUSTIN: Your side
burns are gray. DUKE: You want a muffin? I figured if it
filled his mouth, maybe he'd quieten
down a little bit. A muffin, really? You're rewarding his behavior? Neither of these parents
have a clue about discipline. I can't bend over like that. My back. DEBORAH: I could see that just
walking Austin into his room had put a great strain on Dad. It's hard for a parent when
they can't do anything physical with their kids. Tell me what happened
to your back. I was very rear-ended
in a car wreck. Oh my god, when? Three years ago. It hinders me from doing what
I need to do around here. I can't run anymore. It makes it a lot harder. It's been an adventure so far
with Austin, trying to figure out what part of it is
behavior and what part of it is the medication either
working or not working. I can't tell. Dad told me the same
thing that I heard Mom say, that because they can't
tell the difference between negative
behavior and ADHD, they're not really
disciplining at all. I wanted to have a conversation
with Austin, because I wanted to find out from him whether
or not he felt he could control that behavior. Why do you say bad names
like, I want you to die and all that kind of stuff? I don't know. You don't know? You just come up with it? And you don't want to listen. You run around the
house like that. But if you wanted to stop
running around the house like that, could you stop? Do you want to be
good sometimes? But you're not sometimes. You know that, right? So if we taught you
how to try to be good, would you like that, if I
taught you how to be good? Yes? There's nothing that's going
to stop me from getting through to this boy. We're going to do what we
have to do to turn him around. I can see in his
eyes that he knows the difference between what's
right and what's wrong. And that's the first step. Come on. I'm going to get
ready to leave now. I'm going to come back
tomorrow and have a family meeting with you. What I have observed
today is a mess. But it's not a mess
because Austin has ADHD. It's a mess because these
parents aren't parenting the way they should. Rest up. We have a lot to do. OK. DEBORAH: I'm going to have to
have a tough meeting with them and get to the bottom of it. DUKE: Thanks for everything. [rooster crowing] Hi. Hello. MARY: I do fear
that I'm a bad mom. And that's the last
thing I want to hear, because I love my kids
with all my heart. We need to address
Austin's behavior. Kicking, punching,
throwing things. He disrespects you,
Mom, with his language. Now, I'll tell you a
little bit about ADHD. Children are impulsive. They say things
before they think, OK? But this is going to
a whole new level. You have to learn how to parent
and take the control back. And right now, Austin
has all the control, which means that you are
allowing him to raise himself. And when children
raise themselves, children end up in jail. He tells me that
he was born bad and he doesn't know
how to be good. You know what he told me? That he knows how
to be good, and he wants me to help him be good. Discipline. There is none. No correction, no teaching. What you do is just yell
and scream. (IMITATING MARY) Don't do that. Stop doing that. As a parent, that's
very irresponsible, to just yell and
scream at your child-- and not only not tell them
what they're doing wrong, but don't correct the behavior. Do you know that what you're
doing is not effective? Yes. Definitely not effective. But you continue to do it. Not OK. I need to talk to
you about the boys' lack of self-reliance skills. I saw you take
their food to them. I saw you clean up after them. I saw you put the toothpaste
on the toothbrush. You treat these
children like infants. How do they ever
learn responsibility? I feel like that's my way
of nurturing them as a mom. It's not your job to put
their clothes on for them, to brush their teeth for them. It's not working. And we have to change
things that don't work. Exactly. I'm going to talk to
you now about nutrition. I saw the children drinking
soda and sugary cereal for breakfast. Poor nutrition does
not help anybody. Poor nutrition for a child
that has ADHD is even worse. You say that you don't want
the kids to drink soda, but I saw eight bottles
on the counter yesterday. I think we should replace
it with orange juice maybe. Uh, you think? We have got to talk about Aryel. The makeup is so
obsessive in her life. Like, she literally thinks
she doesn't look good without makeup. And she's beautiful. She's beautiful. Yeah, she is. (WHISPERING) But
she doesn't know it. She comes from a
difficult background. She acts like she doesn't care. When they're so
quick to say that, there's some underlying
issue going on. I'm scared for her. You said that this
part would be hard, but-- Listen. Hard to hear, but I'm
here to help you, OK? You never lose hope. It's never too
late for children. I noticed that
throughout my observation, these children were
drinking so much soda. And to give a
child that has ADHD that much sugar, all you're
adding is aggression. Every sip is a punch. Every sip is a hit. I want you to guess how
much sugar is in here. And we're going
to use this spoon. You say 25? Mm-hm. How many do you
think, Brandon, maybe? Scoop some out. Make sure it's a teaspoon. Put it in here. One. 25. Keep going. It's over 31. Now we gotta get
Mom and Dad to pick. How many do you think? - 48.
- 48. And what does-- 52. 52. Let's keep going. 52. It is more than this. Wow. 53. That's it. 53 teaspoons. This was just ridiculous, that
we had been giving our kids all of this. What do you think we should
do with all of this stuff? Throw it out. Oh! Let's just throw it out. Go, go, go, go! DUKE: Down the sink it
went, and that was it. And that is it, forever. DEBORAH: All right! With the soda all
down the drain, the next order of business was
house rules for the children so that they would know
what's to be expected. These are the House Rules. Brandon, read the first rule. Use kind words. Who knows what a kind word is? Please. DEBORAH: Please, very good. Before Deborah put the
House Rules into place, they really wasn't any. So it was good, because
we got a structure. We got some kind of
foundation to build by. I needed to put
discipline in place after putting the
House Rules in place. For Austin and for Brandon, it's
called the Calm Down Corner. Right here is going to
be the Calm Down Corner. You could just stand right here. Three minutes in
the Calm Down Corner does not start
until they're calm. And for Aryel, she's older.
so I'd do Lose What You Like. You're going to lose
something that you value and that you like. And you have to
lose it for a day. You don't get it back. I noticed that Aryel just had a
face on, just a real attitude. And so it was important for me
to pull her aside and find out what was going on with her. Something's going on, Aryel. I just don't like rules. Because you think
you do OK anyway. Yeah. But you're only 12. I didn't like rules, either. 12 years old, 13 years
old, let me tell you-- ugh, I don't even know
if I can say this, but I'm going to just
be honest with you. I did not like my mom. I didn't. I know, isn't that horrible? I didn't like her, because
she was just like-- I used to get straight A's. One day, I brought home
one B. And she just like, was so hard on me. And I didn't understand
until I got older that she was so hard
on me because she knew I could do better. And so sometimes,
we don't understand when we're growing up why
parents say what they say. But it's better for
you when you grow up. Most children don't like rules. But you need rules
in order to operate. And because she lives in a
household and she is a child, she's going to have
to live by the rules. Hey, Brandon. When I came back downstairs,
Austin started falling out. What's the rule?
- Austin. Brandon.
- Go to him. Rule. Austin was refusing to eat
his snack at the table, and I had to make sure
Mom actually enforced the rules for the first time. Listen, you're-- No, there is not "listen."
Table. Rule.
What's the rule? Go to the table. Eat at the table. There is no rule. DEBORAH: This is your warning. MARY: This is your warning.
- Come on, Mom. Gotta move. Uh-uh, that's not OK. Calm Down Corner, Mom. Not listening.
- OK. You're not listening. You're going to
Calm Down Corner. DEBORAH: Mom proceeds to put
Austin in the Calm Down Corner. And I knew at that
moment, uh-oh. He's going to take
her through it. Don't touch him. You're in the Calm Down Corner
because you didn't listen-- You're in the Calm Down
Corner 'cause you didn't listen to mommy. Die in a ditch, woman. You're in the Calm Down
Corner for not listening to Mom. That's fun, baby, fun. DEBORAH: Austin in
the Calm Down Corner was everything I
anticipated and more. He was running away
she had to chase him. You're in the Calm Down
Corner for not listening to Mom. DEBORAH: It's what he's used to. Get him from behind. Are y'all sweating yet? DEBORAH: You're not paying
attention to anything he's saying right now. Austin's used to doing things,
saying things, and getting a rise out of Mom. This time, she had
to remain calm. You're in the-- uh-uh. Go. You're in the Calm Down Corner
for not listening to Mom. You're in the
Calm Down Corner. Did that hurt or not? DEBORAH: All about
wearing him down. He's used to wearing you down. Come on. So you're teaching her
to overpower me? (SHOUTING) It's not gonna work. DEBORAH: Austin is definitely
at the top of the list when it comes to
defiant behavior. DEBORAH: Watching
him deliberately bait his mother just confirmed
what I thought all along. This wasn't impulsive
ADHD behavior. It was just a negative behavior. That's his behavior. That's not ADHD. You're bigger than that, Mom. Behind, behind, behind, behind. Behind. You're in the
Calm Down Corner. As a father, it's really hard
to just sit back and watch. It was an ongoing battle. Calm Down Corner. It took him a minute. I mean, he was
screaming and hollering. You're in the Calm Down
Corner for not listening. (SHOUTING) Quit saying that. DEBORAH: He was
fighting the discipline. But I couldn't
let Mom back down. He regularly hits
his family members and throws things at them. It's abusive, and it's not OK. You're in the Calm Down Corner
for not listening to Mom. Eventually, after close to
an hour, he calmed himself. Austin, you were in
the Calm Down Corner because you didn't
listen to Mom. You can get up now because
you calmed yourself down. DEBORAH: Mom didn't give up, and
she actually followed through with a technique
for the first time. DEBORAH: After the
Calm Down Corner, I noticed that Austin
went over to the couch. I could see in his eyes
that he really felt bad. And so it was important
for me to go over to him and actually talk
him through it. What was that about? Hmm? Austin, you know how
to be a good boy. And it's not to when
you act up like that. I want you to try harder,
you understand me? Yes?
- Yeah. Yeah. You gotta do better, man,
because I know you can do it. You have it in you
to be a good boy. You're a good boy. I believe in you, sweetie, OK? It's all right. He felt really bad. I mean, he actually cried. I needed him to see that
he could get better, because it was his choice to
make sure that he could get better. It's gonna be all right. With discipline in
place, it was time to get Austin and
Brandon to get themselves ready in the morning. Before I leave this
evening, I'm going to give them some homework. What does this say? Morning schedule. Morning schedule. The self-reliance technique
involved the morning schedule with Austin and Brandon. When she wakes you up
and says time to get up and you step your feet on
the floor, you take the pen and you go like this. Check mark. It's visual. The children can
actually check it off themselves, which makes them
feel confident and responsible. Now, who's gonna
tie up your shoes? Us. Hey, I don't know how to tie. I don't know how
to tie, either. Really? These boys have a lot to learn. But they are so ready to do it. So we're going to
start this tomorrow. No more Mom and Dad
doing things for you. I think it's going to be
just great for them to take that control themselves. DEBORAH: I'll be
back in the morning to see how they've done. The next morning, I was eager
to come back and see how Austin and Brandon were doing
with their new schedules. I was excited to see
that Brandon was already awake and had his breakfast. But Austin was still in bed. OK, Austin. It's time to get up now. If a parent is dealing with a
child who has difficulty waking up, it's important
for that parent to just keep the child moving. And eventually, the child will
sort of wake up themselves. What do we do when
we first get up? Good. Even though Austin did struggle
a little getting out of bed, once he got going he started
getting everything done that he needed to do, which was a
huge accomplishment for us. Come here, I'm gonna show you. They're right on the shelf here. Uh-uh. It's important for parents not
to micromanage their children, particularly when we're
teaching self-reliance skills. What you want to do
is just show the child and let them figure
it out for themselves. Is this the front of the shirt? Yep. OK. Look at your shirt. So what do you need to do? There you go. It's not easy for these
kids to suddenly start doing things for themselves
after years of coddling. But once they got going,
they were on fire. Children really do
want to be independent. It's your job as a parent
to just give them the tools. DUKE: To watch them
put on their backpack, put on their own shoes
getting ready for school-- I mean, Yeah, it's amazing. And we're going to let
'em do it from now on. Oh wow, guys. Look what you did. Great job, guys. Daddy is so proud of you. Aryel told me that she
looks dead without makeup. And the fact is, she's
a beautiful girl who hides low self-esteem
behind that mask of makeup. It won't happen overnight. But I want her to at least begin
to see that she doesn't need a mascara bottle
to be beautiful. I want you to tell me what you
see when you look at yourself with all the makeup on. I see makeup. I see eyeliner and
eyeshadow and mascara. That's about it. Do you see beauty? A little bit. A little bit? What I wanted to teach Aryel
was that the makeup has nothing to do with your beauty. So what we had to do was we
had to start from scratch. All three of us are going
to take off on makeup. All three of us are. I like my makeup. You can put it back
on after we finish. But the bottom line is,
the makeup is coming off. MARY: To see Aryel
taking off her makeup, I knew, was a big step for her. I knew that she really
didn't want to do it. But she was willing to do it,
because we were all doing it. Let's get this
mask off so that we can see the real true beauty. Oh my gosh. Beautiful. Wow. Are you still the same person? Yes. DEBORAH: Do you still
have the same heart? Yes. I just-- I don't know,
I like to look pretty. And you don't
think that is pretty? I mean, I do
think it's pretty. OK, good. Because I need her
to at least recognize that we're not talking about
makeup versus not makeup. We're talking about
pretty versus pretty. And you are pretty. Tween age feelings
of low self-esteem don't go away in an instant. It's going to take time for
Aryel to get used to the idea that beauty comes
from the inside. Hopefully, with love
and encouragement, she'll come to embrace
this, because she really is a beautiful girl. Smile! Austin showed
throughout the week that he knew what
good behavior was, but he was choosing
to act another way. Die in a ditch, woman. DEBORAH: Austin's behavior
had been so extreme. I needed to make sure that
I could really get through to him, so I needed to call
in some reinforcements. [police sirens] MARY: Oh my goodness. What is that? DEBORAH: What is that, Austin? It's a cop. Hello. I need to see Austin Edwards. Austin. Austin? You Austin? Yes, sir. I'm Deputy Knight. I need to talk to
you for a minute. Yes, sir. How old are you? Eight. How have you
been acting lately? Is there anything
you need to tell me? I don't know. I don't think there's
anything I need to tell you. How have you been
treating your mother? I've been calling her names. You been calling
your mother names? I understand that, uh, you've
been trying to do a lot better lately. Is that true? Yes, sir. You're trying to
be a better citizen? Yes, sir. Good, because that's
what we need a lot of. Shake your hand? All right. DEBORAH: It was just the right
amount of a scare tactic, but yet age-appropriate. Not too frightening,
but just enough to give Austin a wake-up
call, that I'd better choose to be the way I know
I can be, or else there are consequences
when I grow up. How did you feel
when he first came? It was a little bit scary,
because I saw your eyes. OK, listen. You can always make the
choice to be a good boy. You know that, right? And that you never
have to go to jail. But it's going to
be your choice. And you gotta start now, OK? Because you know that feeling
that you had where you just felt like, uh-oh, is
he coming to get me? You don't ever want to feel
that way growing up, OK? OK. You did a good thing today. I've definitely seen a
big change in Austin. And it's the kind
I needed to see. He really does want
to behave well. He just needed to
be shown the way. I'm going to leave
you for a while. And while I'm not here,
you are going to be tested. You've got to follow through. You've got to be strong. DUKE: Yeah, OK. All right. DEBORAH: I'm a little
nervous about the fact that I'm leaving the family. Austin was clearly scared
by Deputy Knight's visit, but I know he's going
to really try and test both of the parents. So I really need Mom and
Dad to get some backbone and be strong. I really hope they
can stick to it. OK. How are you? Doing great. Good. I'm a little nervous,
because I felt like maybe we could have done some things
a lot better, especially me. Let's see how you did. Mom said no TV right now. This is your warning.
- No! This is your warning. Gimme the remote or you're
going in the Calm Down Corner. - No.
- OK. You're in the Calm Down Corner
for not listening to Mom. You're in the Calm Down Corner
for not listening to Mom. (SCREAMING) Did you hear me? Die in a ditch! You were in the
Calm Down Corner for not listening to Mommy. Now I need you to go pick
those things up that you threw and put them back on the desk. AUSTIN: And after
that, let me watch TV. There. Now listen. You have the choices of playing
with toys, reading a book, doing some kind of activity. We are not watching
TV right now. Let me watch TV. You have your choices
of what you can do. I'm very proud of you. Wow, that must have
been so difficult. That was. Your son is not
used to you sticking to any kind of technique. Right. And so you see the
anger and the frustration. But you were able to
not feed into that and to know that he's
having his moment, so he's going to say all kinds
of things that are hurtful. Before, I would feel
angry and just flustered. And now, because
of this technique, I felt like this is
just what we're doing, and he's going to
eventually get it. That's right. Yeah, I believe
once he figures out he's not going to win
this, he won't even bother to make the
effort anymore. DEBORAH: Exactly. Very good. OK. Come on, Austin. Get up, OK? You want this? You're not awake
enough to fix it? There we go. Pour it in the bowl, son. It's too heavy. I can't even pick up that. The bowl's just too heavy. MARY: Pick it up
with your hands. AUSTIN: I can't. MARY: Try, Austin. I can't. MARY: Look. Do you know that
your sons know how to pour cereal, yes or no? Yes. OK, so then why are we
pouring the cereal for them? Because he wasn't-- he had just woken up, and just-- So? Trying to get
the morning going. We're feeding into Austin. He's in control again. MARY: Right. DEBORAH: This is what
we're having for breakfast. Sit down and eat, let's go.
- OK. We've gotta stick to it, or
else it's not going to work. OK. All right. MARY: Aryel? What? God. I gave you two minutes
to come eat breakfast. It's been two minutes. Now I need you in the
kitchen to eat breakfast now. You're not listening. Aryel, this is your warning. You're not listening. If you do not get up and come
in there to eat breakfast now, I'm going to take what you like. Aryel, look at me. The flat iron is
gone for tomorrow, because you did not listen. You're being overdramatic. This is ridiculous. She's totally disrespecting
you and being disobedient, and that is not OK. Right. First of all, you
gave her two warnings. I didn't realize
that I did that. One warning. You walk over to her. The mascara goes away. Now, you lose what you like
for not listening to me. She's not used to rules. She doesn't like rules. No 12-year-old does. We don't care. We are the parents. Follow the rules. Right. DUKE: So what was you saying
about Lieutenant Knight? We should do what? Write him a card. DUKE: We can do that. Look at that. MARY: What a good job. Aw. That was sweet. Yeah. Keep that up as you go forth. You know, you really want to
make sure into the future that you really get Austin
to remember that, yeah, I might get in a Calm Down
Corner and I'll say all kinds of things that I can
or cannot control. But there's always
an opportunity to have a second chance. Absolutely. And to do something kind. He's actually looking forward
to hand-delivering it down to the police station, so
we're going to do that. DEBORAH: That's going
to be fantastic, yeah. So overall, I think you have
done a very good job, Mary. Thank you. DEBORAH: You look like a
different woman from the woman I saw when I first observed. Yeah. I feel completely different. It's a very good feeling. DEBORAH: Duke, I think
now that you've seen it, you know what direction
you have to go in. I do. I'm going to change. I'm going to change myself. I'm going to change
the way I handle them. And I'm going to work on it. I'm going to get better, I will. And as long as you
stick to the techniques, everything will work. But it's up to you
to keep it consistent and to follow through. If we stick with the
routine, we'll be fine. OK, say that again, Duke. If I-- If I stick to the routine,
everything will be fine. And I will. OK. I'm going to do better. I know you will. Fantastic. Austin, Brandon? Miss Deborah is
getting ready to leave. Deborah has impacted
our family tremendously with a positive energy. MARY: It's truly changed
my family's life. I know we have so many great
things ahead for us because of this experience. Aryel, remember
that beauty is where? Inside. Inside. Looking in the mirror this
morning without all the makeup, I felt my face could
breathe finally. Thank you, Miss Deborah, for
bringing our family closer together and having less drama. So continue to keep
each other strong, OK? OK. She nice looking,
and thank you! All right, guys,
be good, all right? Take care. I am very proud of the changes
that I have seen in the Edwards family. Bye-bye. DEBORAH (VOICEOVER): Both
Duke and Mary came together as a united front. They no longer use ADHD as
excuse to not do anything. Now they are taking
the bull by the horns to really put the tools in place
so that their children could have a better life. [music playing]
