To think supernanny doesn’t need a come back

[Inthenameoflove]

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.

I hated her then and now.

it was faked for views and Jo was a touch handsy in some episodes.

I think she's needed more than ever. The parenting these days is generally lazy and awful. Then there are the parents who like to claim their kid has ADHD to excuse their failed parenting.

Such an exploitative programme.

I found season 8 to be a lot more relevant. It was shown on Channel 4 I think. Definitely found it more in tune, though very interesting the change in approach and styling. No more corporate look, more relaxed. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxrFh3Xw3wAMskx0KEgJtKWUp5H77b_R_

I think it's a shit show. Whoever thought of it, fair play you get viewers, but I don't know how people could listen to her twattishnes or take her advice. I didn't know she wasn't a mother herself until this thread. It makes sense to a large degree. Wtf does she know about actual mother or parenthood?
I prefer Dogs Behaving Badly. It's very cute 😊

I never watched it but I used to love house of tiny tearaways.
I always remember one of the very restricted eaters on it and the doctor was trying to get the dad to set a good example for the child by eating a vegetable or something like that and the dad didn't even try to hide his disgust for it in front of the child.

I think back when it was first shown in 2004, showing the kids' faces and behaviour on TV would have felt less of an issue. There was no social media, no YouTube, no iPlayer. So no one would have expected these programmes to be still available in 20 years' time except in a few dusty VHS copies. And ideas of data protection and consent were very different too.

This

It was out of date even at the time.

I agree that these kind of programmes are exploitative.

I don’t think not having kids is an issue however if you’ve had a lot of experience in childcare. Having children doesn’t automatically make you an expert in parenting either to state the obvious

It was exploitative TV. Part of that genre of presenting it as educational and advice-giving when it was really pointing at people and saying 'look at these awful people and their terrible kids'.

Same goes for all the fat shows that were on around that time. Secret eaters, Gilliam Mckieth and the like. Pretending to be doing public health promotion when it was really just 'urgh, look at that fattie and all the disgusting things they eat'.

The filming kids was obviously wrong but as pp said - we didn’t know instagram and TikTok was coming where the clips would be there for ever.
I don’t see what is wrong with her advice tbh. Firm boundaries, clear explanations, consequences, rewards.
The fact that she doesn’t have kids is irrelevant. A parent has the experience of dealing with a tiny number of kids compared to a professional nanny. Mother doesn’t always know best. In the old days extended family would play a much bigger role in raising kids so multiple perspectives were around. Now we live much more isolated and parents are often on their own. They miss out on the wisdom of others.

they tried the rebranding but it’s still was faked a lot of the time too again for views.

I used her techniques when mine were young. The naughty step was helpful and worked. So I was thankful and think she has great ideas and methods in setting boundaries. Mine turned out fine and remember the naughty step to this day 😂

AFAIK it isn’t a speech impediment it is her continued mispronunciation and a very common one at that. She was corrected and was able to change her pronunciation.

Some of her methods however (time out) are bordering on abusive though imo....I prefer Democratic Parenting

Time out is not abusive

Time out abusive?! 😂😂 no wonder there are so many entitled arrogant kids around if they are all told being asked to go somewhere quiet and calm down is “abuse” 🙄

I would suggest you read more into it.....

For those laughing, Time Out is described by a very highly thought of Irish child psychologist, David Coleman, as 'an emotional slap' and he's not a bit airy fairy in his advice but I always remembered that and never did it.

Those saying 'no harm done' are echoing plenty of the previous generation who still say the same about slapping their children. I wasn't slapped thankfully and I didn't do time out and even less harm done that way.

Relationship is key, but it's not quite as easy to market it but it is the solution overall. I agree some children's behaviour today is dreadful and it's not fair on the children. I was uncomfortable with some SN episodes pre kids and don't think I've seen any since.
I remember another series that I can't remember the name of.. a nanny that sat taking notes the first week and then gave advice. More modern I think.

I agree. I always wonder about the no harm thing. How do people know, the child might be very different if they hadn't been slapped or emotionally slapped.

Those saying 'no harm done' are echoing plenty of the previous generation who still say the same about slapping their children. I wasn't slapped thankfully and I didn't do time out and even less harm done that way.
I never slapped my children but dud use on occasion ' naught strp' although we didnt call it that.
It worked for us because ds was told to think about why 'mummy was upset with his behaviour just then' it was done calmly and sparingly. We talked about it once he joined us again and we would talk and get an apology. Ds would get a hug and and I told him we would move on.
Absolutely no problem. It was a consequence of bad behaviour.

I liked house of Tiny Tearaways as well as Jo Frost’s programme but omg the psychologists on HTT were as smug and condescending as they come!

I was thinking about the original with Dr Tanya Byron, couldn't remember her name earlier, but I loved her!

I did look it up last year and saw there was later seasons that had a couple of psychologists and I never saw those ones.

Interesting, thanks.

I was in France a while back where there was a British woman in a hairdresser trying to get her little boy, who must have been about three or four, to have his hair cut.

Everyone has sympathy for a parent in that situation and at the start everyone was really patient and helpful , but honestly it turned out to be a really dreadful display of “parenting” so much so that I’ve never forgotten it.

The kid, who was a lovely lad with golden locks, ran around crashing in to and playing with all of the hairdressers things with absolutely no correction from mum and then when he was sat in the chair, refused to stop moving and squirming so the hairdresser couldn’t cut the hair.

All pretty normal three year old behaviour and absolutely not the child’s fault.

I kid you not when I say this went on for about three hours on a Saturday morning!

I know the hairdresser who has the patience of a saint with young and elderly clients.

But the mother sat there, very ineffectually, with a serene smile on her face throughout. She obviously loved her child very much but she seemed to have no thoughts for the hairdresser’s time, her property, the other clients who were having to wait, as the boy only tolerated three minutes of hair cutting before he would protest again and then he would escape the chair and run around again.

By the end all of the morning, all of us in there were willing her to leave for the child’s sake, if not anyone else, but she seemed oblivious to anyone else and her marvellous boy!

Several people including myself were helping at first, I got involved translating, and the child didn’t have any SEN ; he was boisterous, energetic and bored.

I’ve never forgotten the episode and of course I know that effective gentle parenting is the very opposite to this, but the problem is that, if you extrapolate out the hairdresser incident, when you have parents like this who want to be their child’s friends all of the time and refuse to say no to their beloved infant, and not give them any boundaries, then the rest of society pays for it.

That lad no doubt will have grown up feeling absolutely adored and confident in himself which is great, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to feeling adored by everyone else! His parent had more or less contracted out parenting to wider society, and I imagine that some of the members of the public he encountered would not have been as kind about it as the years went on, as that hairdresser was. It’s so unfair on the child and I see it more and more. Never mind the consequences for wider society.

And these are the parents who get told by teachers and scout leaders and sports coaches time and time again that their kid is disruptive and they instigate zero consequences at home and the child and these very same parents get upset and defensive when the child isn’t invited to parties and gets thrown off the under tens football team.