To think Jo Frost (Supernanny) was wrong to post inflammatory comments

[Margot78]

Jo Frost shared this on her FB page. I’m
not sure why, I was quite baffled by it. Surely she knows that parents of children with asd/adhd/ocd will be offended at the suggestion that they are chasing a label for their child? Not sure what she was trying to achieve with this!

Exactly this

She’s not wrong.

haha this

ODD is a funny one. As in my kid is odd. I have just googled it and it is actually a thing. Schools love a bit of an ADHD diagnosis. Ours are always pushing for assessments of perfectly normal kids. Strange times.

totally agree with this post. There seems to be a massive craze in my area for kids to have some kind of abcd label firstly self diagnosed by the parent/parents.
parents then don't seem to like it when the teachers at school suggest otherwise.
I know of 4 families at the moment in a battle for a label but having spent time with these children myself they all seem to be perfectly normal (for want of a better word) children. it seems roughly around 7 out of 10 families have atleast 1 child with a label. Some have genuine issues obviously but many do not in my opinion and just lack adequate parenting. I often wonder is there some financial incentive for the kids to have a label such as extra benefits etc 🤔 maybe a reason why some parents push for it. And before anyone jumps on me yes some parents do and will stoop that low.

On the contrary, I have a daughter with ADHD who is now almost 18. She's never been badly behaved to be honest. She was never aggressive, violent, she's never used bad language. She just couldn't sit still, couldn't learn and was a bit of a danger to herself (no sense of danger etc).

I always get offended by people's throw away comments such as 'I'm sure my wee Johnny has ADHD' based on him not doing a thing he's told and hitting, swearing etc.

ADHD is so much more complex than I lot of people believe. I didn't want a diagnosis at the beginning, but she's thriving now. She's well educated, she's incredibly creative and she's a good person. She still has her challenges with being neuro diverse, but there was no need for me to seek an 'excuse' for anything.

🤔 I always thought she was a bit rubbish really. Her show seemed to exploit people. A lot of the parents seemed clueless about basic parenting and had lots of issues. They needed help, not filming. I felt sorry for the kids being filmed. Some obviously needed consistency in discipline, routine and love but it was all about a show and drama. Very sad.

What are her qualifications to comment on this? I know she had been a nanny for a long time but does she have any background in psychology, medicine etc? It’s getting her attention I guess, I hadn’t heard anything of her for years.

@WTF475878237NC What attuned parenting do you usually observe to be missing/required? Very intrigued.

It’s very easy to agree with her and make sweeping statements when you are unaffected by the issues. I don’t know anyone who wants their children to be labelled with these conditions. I would much rather my child was naughty as that would be fixable.

She’s riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiwithin her right to give an opinion

I think everyone is a bit right.

Quite a lot of kids are neuro-diverse to some extent. I've every sympathy with those on the severe end of this. Incredibly difficult.

Then there are those with milder issues, some of who don't have huge behavioural problems. Meanwhile, others behave appallingly whilst their parents throw up their hands claiming (incorrectly) that there's nothing to be done.

There are also those who just behave appallingly, so their parents, who have never parented effectively, look for reasons outside themselves.

All these things happen.

Her 'time out' worked for my DD right up until when she did something that she knew was bad she say 'I expect I need to go to my room and think about what I have done'.
It was hard not to laugh but when she was 17 and diagnosed with autism the reason quiet time after upset worked was crystal clear.

Completely agree.

According to the NICE guidelines ADHD is under diagnosed in children/adults born as females. It’s often misdiagnosed as anxiety.
The problem is not the labels it’s incorrect community opinion like Jo’s that neurodiverse children are more ‘naughty’ than neuro typical children and that’s simple not the case. That’s part of the reason girls are missed - people think girls have to be noticeably ‘naughty’ to have adhd which is simply not true. Adhd can be hyperactive mind instead of hyperactive body.
Its adhd awareness month in October and ocd awareness week also in October. So very ironic she would post this now

Nice guidelines
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng87/resources/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-diagnosis-and-management-pdf-1837699732933

People like her lack common sense
if a child has been diagnosed with adhd, what has that got to do with them being "naughty" ?
It seems that people do not know how to differentiate between neurodivergent behaviours and being naughty ..

Ive seen many children with autism being called "naughty"
For having a meltdown, for screaming, for running and stimming etc

What does naughty even mean ?
Not conforming ..

I had already seen Jo Frosts post which annoyed me but I wish I didn't see this post or read the comments - but I can't stop now. Peoples ignorance baffles me

1. no one, trust me I mean no one would want to go through the diagnostic process unless they really thought their child could have adhd, asd etc - the diagnostic process is long and drawn out, it can take years. It's not as simple as rocking up to see the doctor and leaving with a diagnosis as many people seem to think it is. I've heard people say 'well doctors are too quick to diagnosis'. Diagnosis is often multi disciplinary between different professionals - Ed psychs, paediatrician, speech therapists etc etc, can take a long time and is mentally gruelling for the parents.
2. using the word naughty to describe adhd etc is wrong. Many children with adhd and asd are very well behaved.
3. my son is autistic and our journey I've met a lot of parents with children with these conditions, not once have I ever heard a parent use adhd as an excuse for bad behaviour.
4. It's not labelling, it's diagnosing. Opening up doors for the child.
5. we have so many full grown adults now being diagnosed with adhd and asd in adulthood because it was not picked up in childhood and they were often labelled as 'naughty' or 'backward'.

also, never got the hype with Jo Frost. Always find her awful.

I agree with her. We are bothered by the word naughty but are super eager to throw around diagnosis’s without much thought or consideration of the long term effects. I was diagnosed with ADD in less than five minutes by a paediatrician. He gave my parents a prescription that really ruined my mental health and made me suicidal at the young age of nine! I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THE WORD SUICIDE OR WHAT IT MEANT. I JUST KNEW I WANTED TO DIE AND DIDN’T KNOW WHY.

And then it resulted in many of my actual mental health problems being completely dismissed. I absolutely detest ADD/ADHD diagnoses now. I think they are a distraction from other very real unmet problems in a child’s life.

I have tourette’s syndrome and PTSD from being violently abused by my father. But my PTSD was ignored for years by school staff and I was blamed and dismissed as just being an attention seeking hyper child who doesn’t listen in class and I was punished for my tourette’s syndrome. I was sent to on campus suspension many many times for making noises. That was also swept under the rug as attention seeking ADHD nonsense. FUCK ADD/ADHD diagnoses.

She's not saying (in my interpretation anyway) that these diagnosis's don't exist, but the prevalence of wanting and seeking one has increased exponentially- as another responder who does work in the field stated upthread- the assumption it 'has' to be neurodiversity, and not parenting in some cases. Whilst I think it's clumsy as hell, and poorly written, I get the sentiment.

..parents of difficilt children are usually desperate for some sort of label and don't under any circumstances want to entertain the idea that parenting or traumatic childhood experiences are in any way responsible for their child's behaviour
I agree with this.

we have so many full grown adults now being diagnosed with adhd and asd in adulthood because it was not picked up in childhood and they were often labelled as 'naughty' or 'backward'
I am sure there are those who genuinely fit that diagnosis.
I also think there are just as many who know, because they are adults now, how to fit themselves into the label they seek. 🤷‍♀️

There’s lots of armchair psychologists here who have a bit of knowledge and it makes them very judgemental. It doesn’t make them right.

Getting a diagnosis is a long, hard process. This narrative that there’s doctors handing them out to anyone is very wrong and quite hurtful to people with these conditions, to parents and to the assessment teams

It comes from ignorance and maybe just the need for them to say something, anything, but when repeated enough, it becomes a thing. 🙄 It’s only a throwaway comment for some, or a post on a forum or social media, but it can be so much more to the people reading it if they’re going through it. Do these people also know better than a cardiologist about people’s heart health? Or do they save their ignorant comments solely for things that can impact children’s behaviours, because having a couple of kids or maybe being an aunt or uncle makes them feel qualified to comment on all things children? It doesn’t.

I know someone on a team that is involved in assessments of various conditions. It’s a thorough process. If the child doesn’t meet the criteria, no diagnosis is given. She works so hard and I know from how she talks about her job, she cares about these children getting the right help. The responsibility of getting it right weighs heavy on her, it could affect how these children’s whole future goes. She finds comments like this nanny has made hugely frustrating.

This is true. I agree with her opinion but don’t necessarily like her as a person. I think most of the families are paid actors and many of the situations are staged if I’m being honest. If it’s not staged then a lot of the episodes are appalling and she massively over simplifies many complicated issues.

Perfect, she drives me crazy saying unasseptible ! I really don’t know how she has lasted as long as she has with the naughty step etc .

I do agree to a point some people would rather have their children have a label with a condition than for their children to be labelled naughty due to their lack of parenting skills.
Obviously as I said only some people. X