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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think supernanny doesn’t need a come back

264 replies

Inthenameoflove · 06/03/2026 22:05

I’ve noticed that Jo Frost is on a bit of a PR wave at the moment. AIBU to think her brand of ‘parenting’ advice can stay in the 00s.

I’ve always found the idea of parenting experts without children somewhat suspect. To me it’s very different than being a teacher or working with children generally which I don’t think you need to be a parent to do well.

I don’t enjoy her lectures/rants about things I suspect she has very little knowledge of.

I also find it really morally questionable putting struggling kids on TV - immortalised in their hardest moment forever.

OP posts:
Needspaceforlego · 07/03/2026 22:45

PeopleLikeColdplayYouCantTrustPeopleJez · 07/03/2026 22:28

It didn’t work on my son either. He ended up laughing his head off, getting more and more wound up while I had a complete mental breakdown and cried. His paediatrician laughed when I told him this and said “well as he’s clearly on the spectrum and I’ve just identified he has a sleep disorder, I'm not at all surprised”. This was back when I knew zero about ASD in my defence.

That absolutely sounds familiar. I couldn't get the covers over him before he was sprinting out of bed.

And yes ASD was suspected at one point

Anon501178 · 07/03/2026 22:41

Inthenameoflove · 06/03/2026 22:05

I’ve noticed that Jo Frost is on a bit of a PR wave at the moment. AIBU to think her brand of ‘parenting’ advice can stay in the 00s.

I’ve always found the idea of parenting experts without children somewhat suspect. To me it’s very different than being a teacher or working with children generally which I don’t think you need to be a parent to do well.

I don’t enjoy her lectures/rants about things I suspect she has very little knowledge of.

I also find it really morally questionable putting struggling kids on TV - immortalised in their hardest moment forever.

Yes absolutely! Her posts have come up on my facebook afew times (i don't folllow her, but engage with parenting pages, which is probably why)
She seems to have changed her tune and perspective to be more child focused, however has not to my knowledge owned the past mistakes, yet sadly her parenting 'advice' influenced a whole generation (and more, as some still use it today) of parents to adopt a very disciplinarian stance with isolation techniques like the naughty step etc, which have been proven to be emotionally damaging, which is pretty unforgivable IMO.

Wishingplenty · 07/03/2026 22:33

tutugogo · 06/03/2026 23:17

Mostly she used common sense, the situation I see at the toddler group we run demonstrates current parenting techniques aren’t working. What I don’t agree with is putting kids on tv too young to consent

Lol!

PeopleLikeColdplayYouCantTrustPeopleJez · 07/03/2026 22:28

Needspaceforlego · 07/03/2026 22:21

The back to bed thing became a game in my house. That would end when LO ran into a door or something.

It didn’t work on my son either. He ended up laughing his head off, getting more and more wound up while I had a complete mental breakdown and cried. His paediatrician laughed when I told him this and said “well as he’s clearly on the spectrum and I’ve just identified he has a sleep disorder, I'm not at all surprised”. This was back when I knew zero about ASD in my defence.

FancyCatSlave · 07/03/2026 22:28

Oh gosh I think she is absolutely awful, in every conceivable way.

Just no.

Puffin69 · 07/03/2026 22:25

As a person with no children i enjoyed her show even if i disagreed sometimes. As a parent of 2 ND sons i find her horrifying. I do admit though an outside veiw can helo and i did like she was against corporeal punishment.

Needspaceforlego · 07/03/2026 22:21

MissyB1 · 07/03/2026 19:36

Her “back to bed” routine has been successful for many parents, I used it, so did my sisters and lots of my friends.

The back to bed thing became a game in my house. That would end when LO ran into a door or something.

MrsChristmasHasResigned · 07/03/2026 21:20

You are not wrong that the type of approach and the way the show was made and presented is not appropriate now.

But I voted YABU for your shitty comment about her status having children herself. Look around anywhere anytime and you will see parents who are completely rubbish. To say that is more important than someone who has studied and worked with children is bonkers.

Trillie · 07/03/2026 21:10

Judging by the behaviour I see of some children she can’t come back soon enough.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 07/03/2026 20:33

I love Jo Frost I think had lots of practical ideas for handling behaviour and helping with sleep. You still lots of poor behaviour of children in public so I’m sure many parents would appreciate her ideas.

Wynter25 · 07/03/2026 20:28

TheignT · 07/03/2026 12:48

Lots of us thought it was questionable 20 years ago. Obviously the TV company were happy with it, she had her fans probably still does.

I particularly hated the naughty step.

I do the naughty step. It does work!

Wynter25 · 07/03/2026 20:26

ChocolateHobbit · 06/03/2026 23:10

Well, I think she's brilliant and I think a huge amount of parents could do with the support right now.
There's nothing outdated about getting a good routine and consistent boundaries.

I like her too!

TheDogIsMine · 07/03/2026 20:23

Weirdly they’ve been playing episodes in my kids classes the last few weeks. She, and I, have no idea why 🤣

House12 · 07/03/2026 20:12

Her not having children isn’t suspect in the slightest, my friend is the most incredible doula (birth & pp), adores kids and is exceptional with everyone’s children, and she neither has nor wants her own.
I don’t think kids should be filmed this way, but that’s the parents choice, not hers. I won’t watch it but there’s way worse stuff out there.

BertieBotts · 07/03/2026 20:11

NovemberMorn · 07/03/2026 12:36

The kids were happier, but how will they feel in a few years time when they realise their parents were willing to show them off to the world, especially when they were going through real childhood traumas.

The children from programmes from that era are old enough to have their own social media and some have uploaded their own views about it. Most that I have seen tend to be "Lol look how naughty I was, this is funny, look at me now!" (They seem to very rarely be doing anything of note now) - but I did see a video of someone who had been on an episode of Hoarders as a teenager, and felt that the entire process had been exploitative, disruptive and did not help long term.

Of course if someone doesn't want their name linked to this old TV programme they are unlikely to post openly, so I wouldn't take that as a given.

Some episodes have been removed from re-airing due to privacy concerns, which may have been at the children's request, and the families' names removed from the Supernanny wiki.

As far as I can tell from what I've seen from people sharing their own experience plus a few comments on the wiki, some families found that the approach did help calm things down somewhat, and combined with the children growing up there was a longer term positive effect, but many did fall back into some state of chaos. Some families sold stories to newspapers/other media in the following years claiming that the producers wound up the children or staged some of the incidents shown. It's hard to tell whether this is genuine gripe because they were misled or a skewed/unreliable narrative of what actually happened. Some of the children ended up committing crimes and going to prison. Several families went on to have more children. Many of the couples divorced/separated. Many of the children on the programmes who have posted about their experience state that they do not have much if any contact with their parents as adults.

Interestingly this was also a topic on the podcast interview, and Jo said that she didn't feel responsible for whether or not parents fall back into bad habits after she leaves, which I thought was a bit simplistic - I felt she was implying if the parents had stuck to her advice perfectly and used it always, then every problem they have ever had will be solved, and that seems unlikely. It also ignores the fact that it's not completely random that a family ends up in the crisis point they are usually at at the start of the programme. Most of Jo's advice is extremely basic and the first parenting advice you'll find in any book, article or course - clear boundaries, connection, structure and positive role models. So if you're not managing those things often it's because of underlying issues e.g. own childhood trauma, lack of own role models, extreme stress, emotional difficulties, very poor self-awareness, MH problems/ND etc. You can override things like that for a very short intense sprint like a 3-week TV programme with an expert coaching you all the time, but parenting is a marathon not a sprint. And as others pointed out, TV editing is such that you can easily show the worst parts of the "before" week and the best moments of the "after" week and make it look like Jo's methods have totally transformed the children but that is unrealistic in such a short space of time. And as you usually see during week 2, it only takes a small amount of slack in the plan for things to unravel, and parents are only human and probably humans with issues or they wouldn't have got there in the first place.

PeopleLikeColdplayYouCantTrustPeopleJez · 07/03/2026 20:07

UraniumFlowerpot · 07/03/2026 20:02

I’ve never liked the idea of a naughty step either but I knew one family who had basically the same thing without the word naughty. It was more framed as you need some time to chill out and get control of your emotions so you can join in in the best way. This was with kids about 2&4 when I knew them.

I found it very sweet seeing the 4yo take himself to the step with apparently no negative feeling about it. Also the time he was told he needed to stop being so rough and if he hit again he’d have to go sit on the step for a while, seeing him stop for a moment and consider then hit the other kid and calmly take himself off for his timeout. Made me smile (no one was actually hurt, just to be clear). Maybe a one off but for that family it seemed to work really well.

Agree. The actual concept of having some time out to calm down, regroup and consider the consequence of your actions is a positive thing. Especially if your child then takes themself there. But maybe adding “naughty” onto it turned it into a battleground that it didn’t have to be?

UraniumFlowerpot · 07/03/2026 20:02

TheignT · 07/03/2026 12:48

Lots of us thought it was questionable 20 years ago. Obviously the TV company were happy with it, she had her fans probably still does.

I particularly hated the naughty step.

I’ve never liked the idea of a naughty step either but I knew one family who had basically the same thing without the word naughty. It was more framed as you need some time to chill out and get control of your emotions so you can join in in the best way. This was with kids about 2&4 when I knew them.

I found it very sweet seeing the 4yo take himself to the step with apparently no negative feeling about it. Also the time he was told he needed to stop being so rough and if he hit again he’d have to go sit on the step for a while, seeing him stop for a moment and consider then hit the other kid and calmly take himself off for his timeout. Made me smile (no one was actually hurt, just to be clear). Maybe a one off but for that family it seemed to work really well.

PeopleLikeColdplayYouCantTrustPeopleJez · 07/03/2026 19:58

I don’t doubt she has credentials but watching some episodes were really uncomfortable viewing- mostly because all of the children featured were having their bad behaviour/challenges immortalised forever on screen- but also because at least some of the children clearly had issues or ND that Jo Frost and the show was never going to be able to “fix”. They needed different interventions. There was also a few couples/families where there seemed to be abuse going on even if it was “only” emotional abuse. It the parents are physically abusing their children in front of SuperNanny and the crew, the whole episode should be shelved and the family reported to social services instead.

TheAngryPuxie · 07/03/2026 19:47

I LOVE Supernanny and am going through a stage of watching all of her stuff on Youtube. My favourite bits are the naughty corner and the bedtime technique. Most of all I just love seeing the little brats being taught how to behave! I can never understand how the children get so awful in the first place!

MissyB1 · 07/03/2026 19:36

Her “back to bed” routine has been successful for many parents, I used it, so did my sisters and lots of my friends.

ForAmusedHazelQuoter · 07/03/2026 19:07

Bring her back, how is all this not sleeping for years beneficial to anyone?

StrawberryElephants · 07/03/2026 19:04

As a teenager I watched her quite a lot and certain things she demonstrated I use to this day with my son.

I agree its not aged well to have the struggling children on television - but on the other hand - i think her methods helped many people.

HRTQueen · 07/03/2026 19:03

She was and still is an awful woman I could never understand how she was so popular

humiliating people for entertainment was a popular theme at the time less so now and that is what she is about

MrsCarmelaSoprano · 07/03/2026 18:59

Itsthesameeveryday · 07/03/2026 18:35

Whilst shes not everyone's cup of tea, a hell of a lot of parents could do with taking note of some of her parenting tips.

Totally agree, I liked her early stuff and I wish more parents would manhandle their kids instead of pleasing and pandering to them. Kids thrive when boundaries are in place.

Itsthesameeveryday · 07/03/2026 18:35

Whilst shes not everyone's cup of tea, a hell of a lot of parents could do with taking note of some of her parenting tips.

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