Super nanny

[Marmaladeoncrumpets]

Watched what I assume was an old show on tv today (is super nanny still going?) and fairly shocked by the tactics used. I remember seeing it on Sunday mornings many years ago, before dc and Dh and I saying to each other, what a nightmare having kids looked, as we lounged around probably hungover and with no commitments for the day 🤣
I do remember thinking she was great, but then, I had no kids or no idea 🤷🏻‍♀️
Did you ever follow her?

I can’t forgive Supernanny for the way she says “unasseptable”.

Very of her (my) time with tinnies Bit like Gina Ford really.

Beat me to it 😅

Bit of a dick move to mock her speech impediment though...

I think the way she dealt with parents was often very good - in lots of episodes she gave them decent techniques for understanding each other or their kids. In saving that, there were several episodes where it looked like one of the parents was depressed, and she didn't really ever talk about stuff like that.

A lot of the techniques she suggested were fine too (things like letting teenagers choose a family activity once a week, setting up chore charts etc), it's just things like the naughty step that now seem dubious. But even at the time, the naughty step was an alternative to smacking for many people.

I always wondered how well the kids behaved when she left, though. My two would be angels if there was an unknown woman in the house telling them what to do. Then they'd go nuts when she left.

The format always used to make me laugh. It was virtually always:

Stage 1: filming dreadful kids being dreadful and parents being utterly useless. Supernanny looks on, pursing her lips and tutting.
Stage 2: Supernanny moves in and sorts out both kids and parents.
Stage 3: Supernanny leaves parents on their own being filmed, they do OK-ish but could up a bit. SN comes back with the film to show them what they did wrong.
Stage 4: Kids have miraculously become little angels and parents have become superparents. All live happily ever after, calling down blessings on SN.

Just once, I wanted to see parents and/or kids tell SN to eff off.

I thought she was pretty good.

There are harsher more archaic methods of discipline still rife, and I think she offered an alternative for people accustomed to such methods.

'I think the way she dealt with parents was often very good - in lots of episodes she gave them decent techniques for understanding each other or their kids'

I agree. She also held parents to account and challenged them when they were blaming it all on the kids. She made it very clear that it was their situation to fix, that she would support them but ultimately they had to do the work. Also did a pretty good job of helping parents to understand WHY their children were behaving that way

No, the naughty step certainly hasn't aged well. Glad to see there aren't many comments in here about her not having children of her own - she had about 20 years experience working with children when SuperNanny started so was hardly making it up as she went along

For all I think her techniques have aged badly and that her opinions on neurodivergence are absolute bullshit, she does a lot of good work advocating for those at risk from anaphylaxis and she is an activist for the eradication of child neglect and poverty.

You can overfeed a bottle fed baby. Can't a breastfed baby

That is often repeated, but how is it measured?

Everything is wrong with the naughty step. It is NOT recommended by any professional

Well I'll be doing it on my son. My mams always done it and does on the grandchildren

A lot of what she did was just good, common sense.

Doing something because your parents always did it is a terrible way to carry on.

I always wondered how well the kids behaved when she left, though. My two would be angels if there was an unknown woman in the house telling them what to do. Then they'd go nuts when she left.

Yes there’s always that. Like some kids are terrible at home but paragons of virtue at school.

I don’t think it will age well there was one where a mum trying to cook dinner spent 90 minutes putting her crying child on a naughty step over and over again.
TBH would have been better doing a 5 minute time out and then giving her a hug to calm her down then discussing it or something. Honestly if that girl had a hug that 90 minutes of crying could have been cut to 10 even with a suitable punishment.

I remember one episode set in the US with these awful parents. The dad would slap his toddler daughters in the face. Jo’s bright idea to solve this family’s issues was to have the teen daughters sit down and say dad it makes us feel bad when you act like this, please don’t slap the babies in the face anymore. Then she made him go into the garden and throw darts at big cutouts of his daughters’ faces to make a point about how he is damaging them and how he doesn’t really want to do that.

After that I never watched another episode. Broadcasting child abuse for entertainment is sick. Same (in my opinion) with some episodes of wife swap. Just showing children being treated poorly and made a spectacle of for fun.

What is the difference between time out and the naughty step?

Honestly don’t think you can overfeed any baby. Just feed the baby. Better to pay more attention to their diets from weaning onward.

I'm sorry but it's no one's business how I parent. There's nothing wrong with it. We are all fine and so are the grandkids.

Surely not if you can see the benefits of it though?

Don’t think there is one particularly but her rule was to return them to the naughty step over and over again until they did the full x minutes. Took this little girl 90 minutes to get there.

I would’ve just done an x minute time out regardless of the kid wondered and then calmed her down.

A prominent, Irish psychologist calls it an emotional slap. Better the actually deal with the issue rather than punishing a undeveloped child out of it. I have never used it and have two (largely!) well behaved and polite children who are used to being calmly corrected with explanations of why. Yes plenty of it has to be repeated but that's OK, they're children. We don't punish children for not being able to walk or talk yet, I hope, their behaviour is similarly a work in progress. Added to that, their emotional development is much more important in those early years, imo.

I always thought she was awful

she enjoyed humiliating parents on tv what sort of person likes to do this. Not someone I would want my child around