To think Super Nanny Jo Frost has lost the plot?

[Pekoe78]

Assuming she sanctions the views on her social media page. Jo Frost has shared this bizarre scary post claiming that an unclean home is the “number one sign” of child abuse. How is she getting away with such inaccurate information? Surely she knows the difference between abuse and neglect and that actual abuse can happen in any home. If a child is actually suffering from real neglect, simply telling the parents “clean your house” is not going to help a complex situation. So what is she trying to achieve apart from making parents terrified of being accused of something because they are behind with cleaning?!

True but it's not just squalor that affects quality of life, there's tripping over the laundry pile to find your p.e. kit isn't washed, you can't find an uncluttered surface to do your homework, you are embarrassed to bring your friends around, etc, etc

I see what she is trying to say, weare not the tidiest people but she is not talking about us, if you are paranoid I would see why you are concerned though

Im taking you to task over your last comment there. That’s a low blow to all those wonderful childcare providers who have not been able to have children for one reason or another.

And, as she’s literally pointing out in the video, having children does not automatically mean you will look after them better or understand what they need.

It's poorly worded. Presumably what she means is that abusive households are almost always dirty and that's the correlation. Not that all dirty houses are abusive households.

But by putting out a PSA worded like this, it leads to the assumption that abusive households could now clean their houses and fall under the radar. That SS would investigate a report of abuse and go, 'Oh no, the house is clean, no abuse here!'

It could also stress out a lot of parents who are struggling with MH (but not abusive) that they absolutely must keep the house perfectly clean at all times in case their children are taken away. I read a post the other day where a woman would be frantically cleaning the windowsills before an HV visit, as she used to be convinced that the HV would report her if her house wasn't spotless. These are the sort of consequences that JF is triggering with a stupidly worded post like this.

She's right tho. 😬 Some people need to have a long hard think on the impact it has on kids when they live in filth and stop making excuses to not get off their arses and do something about it.

She's right - in my previous work, living in squalor was a warning sign of neglect for children. She's not talking about untidy.

She made a living from exploiting children by showing them on television experiencing intense struggles and difficulty.

She has consistently refused to acknowledge the reality of neurodiversity, preferring to blame the difficulties neurodiverse children experience on being naughty. She explicitly refuted the concept of neurodiverse children ‘masking’ at school, despite this being a phenomenon which is widely reported and entirely accepted by professionals working with children who have SEN.

She has repeatedly advised parents (on the basis of absolutely no qualifications) that complex medical histories have not caused their children trauma or affected their development and that any difficulties their children face are because of bad behaviour and not their medical histories affecting them.

She relies on widely debunked methods like putting extremely emotionally dysregulated children in time outs or excluding them, even very young children, despite all research showing this is ineffective and a source of trauma to young kids.

She frequently roughly manhandled young children who were in states of extreme emotional distress.

In the course of filming, children were frequently encouraged to behave in a worse way than normal and actions were taken to deliberately stir them up into greater emotional states in order to create more dramatic scenes. These were then filmed, with the behaviour labelled as bad, and shared with the world despite children not being old enough to consent to this. Some families have reported their kids’ behaviour worsening after the show because they had been encouraged to play up in this way.

I highly doubt many neglectful or abusive parents are following Jo Frost! And life isn't as simple as that, is it. Seeing some woman post that isn't going to make people clean and maintain a clean home long term. Their house is dirty, not because they're abusers, but because they have addictions, or mental health problems, or an intrinsically lazy attitude towards the home. These things don't change because a random 'patenting expert' has posted a social media post. These things would require immense support and therapy to overcome.

So no, I doubt the puzzle piece will be removed.

Chances are, her post will have zero impact on anyone.

As others have said, since neglect is a form of abuse (the others being emotional, physical and sexual abuse), and also the most commonly identified form of abuse, I suspect it is statistically correct that a dirty house is the most common indicator. Parents who are actually harming their children’s development as a result of severe neglect are not going to suddenly clean their houses because of supernanny. Abusers who have clean houses, but are abusing their children in other ways, have always been harder to identify, because they are capable of being far more secretive, because that requires action, rather than failure to do things that should be done. This doesn’t stop neglect being one of the recognised types of abuse.

Maybe she means that more children are living in squalid conditions (which is a form of abuse) than are suffering other kinds of abuse?
Those parents who are living in filthy shit tips may well love their children (as much as they are able) but are still harming them through neglect. And obviously, people without other problems going on, don't live that way. So the kids are obviously affected by their parents issues. The filthy house is symptomatic of the additional issues, as well as being g a problem in itself.

I'm fairly certain she is talking about homes with human and animal faeces everywhere, fleas and general hazardous conditions caused by extreme filth generally is linked to neglect. She hasn't worded it properly and we do read stories of poor children who have been abused but came from these extreme conditions. She isn't talking about dirty laundry that's been left for days and a unhoovered home and general living. This is A sign though which should plant a seed for you to be all eyes and ears and make sure if everything is really alright at your neighbours or your dc's school friends home. Saying that, the clean homes and well dressed children can also be neglected and abused which are harder to spot.

Social workers who work with upper and middle class families, where they can obviously afford a cleaner, have to look for other signs of neglect or abuse, it's not just about smeary hobs or dirty floors. This is a stupid statement in my opinion. Neglect is so much more than a messy house. Kids playing with dog faeces which hasn't been cleaned up, or broken glass/ lighters/ lit candles in reach of a toddler is neglect. A mum or dad who struggle with MH and can't always put the hoover round but have generally safe houses- not neglect. The only difference in terms of assessing risk is the ability to pay for a cleaner, you have to look for other signs. Is the parent responsive to the child?

Regardless of what she means, it's pointless.

An exhortation to clean your house, as a means to addressing child abuse that might be linked to it, is not going to have any effect on someone who, for whatever reasons, is unable to keep their house in a clean and liveable condition for their children.

This may indicate a situation which could be categorised as abuse, or it may indicate a chaotic problematic lifestyle which still retains enough core elements of well-being that it's not abuse.

Either way it's a poorly worded, factually dubious, pointless post.

You don't know what she's talking about as she's failed to specify, at all, much less contextualise.

And abuse can easily be happening in houses much less dirty than you describe but without sufficient access to food, heating or adequate supervision.

It's a really silly position for her to take.

It's just a social media post designed to cause engagement. It's clearly working, because people have even taken it off platform to talk about it 😉

It's only pointless if you don't take into consideration that she's a brand and has a social media strategy.

Ah yet another “mothers are lazy if they don’t spend 24/7 cleaning and looking after their house and kids from Jo Frost. Hardly surprising there.

All of that.

This awful woman is no authority on child rearing and nobody should listen to a word she says.

She's not wrong though. It's a bit like health and comorbidities. People who abuse and neglect children aren't right, and this will spill into other areas like being unable to keep a clean home.

An unsanitary house isnt an 'indicator' of neglect it IS neglect which is abuse

Statistically the majority of children on child protection plans and pre proceedings is for neglect. It is the biggest abuse of children in this country.

And before anyone piles on, my home is in on the messy side, but unlike my abusive and neglectfilled childhood homes, there aren't rats and damp. I sweep and mop and take the bins out.

It's already been said but dirty is neglect which is a form of abuse.

I feel sad when I read presumptions like this.
Myself and siblings were abused and neglected. Our father had OCD and our house was spotless.
Maybe that's why concerns were never raised even though we all suffered greatly

Abusive households are not nearly always dirty.

Living in actual squalor IS abuse in and of itself, but it’s a factor that indicates more investigation is needed- is it because of overcrowding? Is it poor quality housing? Is it mental health related? Is it illness or disability related? Is it because of lack of understanding (possibly learning difficulties), is it drug related? or lack of care?

Intervention will differ depending on the reason for the situation.

It’s the houses you go to where everything is ‘nice’ except the children’s room/space, the parents are clean but the children are filthy and the children are malnourished while the parents are eating a packet of biscuits that are more worrying to me.

You can see and evidence and deal with squalor, the other is much more insidious.

I think it means squalor too. There was a family who had their children removed not too far from me. They were living in squalor, dog faeces all over the floor with a toddler/ multiple other children.

On the basis that every midwife and HV who came to my house, banged on about how clean and tidy (and beautiful) it was when I'd just had a baby, I am quite sure those vocations, along with social workers would disagree wholeheartedly with Jo Frost.

I only have my experience to go on but based on that, the bar for cleanliness set by those who are supposed to pick these things up was set exceptionally low. It rather made me form the view they must be a bunch of grubby beasts who weren't fit to advise in relation to hygiene and probably many other things as their personal standards were clearly very low.