Posts with tag Supernanny
Former pop singer seeks the help of Super Nanny
Development, Celeb kids, Celeb parenting, That's entertainment
Wendy Wilson, former member of the singing trio Wilson Phillips, will be the first celebrity parent to seek the help of television Super nanny, Jo Frost.
According to a statement from the ABC network, Wilson and husband Dan Knutson are "exhausted and overextended" and will appear on Super nanny to "learn some new strategies for dealing with their busy brood." The couple are parents to four sons: Leo, 4 yrs, Beau 3 yrs, and 5 month old twins Will and Jesse.
The episode will air on February 20th.
I'm guessing this celebrity edition Super Nanny will be about like when Trading Spaces made over Dixie Chick Natalie Maines' guestroom- the before was really nice and only required a little fine tuning.
Supernanny Kids 'Made to Cry'
Development, That's entertainment
Based on the premise that some parents just don't have a clue when it comes to disciplining their children, the show Supernanny has been very successful. Nanny Joe Frost comes into these families' homes and shakes things up. By the time she leaves, the formerly unruly children have been brought under control and parents have been taught new skills in disciplining and controlling their children -- and themselves. It's an interesting watch, I think.The show started in the UK, where it remains a hit. But Joe Frost and her methods have drawn the ire of at least one group, The National Family and Parenting Institute, who expressed concern that parents might see the naughty step as a "cure-all" when every child is different.
But more disturbing than the naughty step is the claim by But Roger Graef, a film maker and founding member of the Channel 4 board. He says that in order to make the show more compelling and to boost ratings, producers on the show are instructed to make children cry. During a TV On Trial debate at London School of Economics, he told the audience that he has had producers come to him complaining about being told to 'change the ending to conform to the script' on several reality shows, including Supernanny.
"They were told to force children to cry on Supernanny. They were told to change things on Wife Swap and so on. The outcome is different then but there has to be some truth in it. If what you are producing is entertainment and you are using real people to do it then, the truth is, there is a long tradition of illusions. That is the reality behind it," he said.
Channel 4's spokesman denies the claim, saying this sort of this has not and would not happen on Supernanny. But isn't it pretty much a given that 'reality' is manipulated on these types of shows? I hope it isn't true, but why would it be any different on Supernanny?
Is the naughty chair a TV-land dream?
Just for moms, Toddlers, Development, Media
I am a massive fan of Jo Frost and her prim matching cardigans and her brilliant "naughty chair" concept. It's so sweet and neatly packaged, how she swoops into a home filled with obnoxious children who are so patently evil that their mother has been cowering under the kitchen sing for days and Jo turns it around. The kids are beaming and hugging at the end, dressed in drawstring shorts with identical blond side-parts. How in the hell does she do it? Her slate-board schedule and her naughty corner. Yes!I watched Nanny 911 more out of trainwreck fascination/horror than anything else, because my baby was a wizened angel and I could never imagine him being anything but innocent and roll-filled and smelling of pink clouds. But now. Oh dear god. I think I need a naughty corner and I don't know how to do it. It's not as easy as Jo Frost makes it look.
Nolan is happy and curious and super sweet 98% of the time, but it is that other 2% that is wearing me down, hunching me over, aging me ten years in three minutes. It's the screaming tantrums when I won't pick him up because I have 4 massively heavy grocery bags in my hands and my wallet between my teeth. It's the random fury because Jordi has tentatively nibbled a bite of the cookie that Nolan had offered to him. I need to fix this absurd behavior, I think, because if he's doing this when he's 6 we'll both be banned from society.
But I would like to inform Jo Frost that a naughty corner doesn't work for a 2-year old. He just walks away and shows me his "ishy, ishy bug bite", forgetting that he nearly blew down the house with his screams three seconds before. A timeout doesn't seem to work either, because I feel like I'm punishing him for something that's just part of the fabric of toddlerdom.
I'm thinking the naughty corner is
a) made for TV or
b) made for older kids
Either that, or my toddler is beating me at my game.
What going on "Supernanny" is really like
Have you ever watched a TV show such as "Supernanny" and wondered how things really were on the show? Well, now you can!After her husband, the disciplinarian, died two years ago, Donna Mihalik was left raising her four children alone. Well, the kids got out of hand, to put it nicely. The older boys used constant profanity and disrespected their mother. That's when she called in Jo Frost.
According to Donna, the ABC crew arrived at their house in August and filmed for ten days. She said the children had no problem acting normal, tantrums included, for the camera. Then Jo arrived and Donna felt that she was under criticism.
In typical "Supernanny" form, Jo taught Donna how the kids needed discipline, structure and rewards. Donna said she learned a lot.
"I think you learn it's really not your kids. It's you," she told a local newspaper.
But did the kids continue to behave or had they reverted to their own ways? The newspaper reporter said how the children "punched and tackled each other," screamed profanities and ran around the house while visitors were there.
Donna thought that the kids were acting up due to having visitors. Perhaps it is time that Super Nanny heads back to remind the kids of the whole "respect" rule.
Would you go on television to get parenting help?
Development, That's entertainment
Who hasn't looked at their child at one point or another and thought "what the heck do I do?" Whether the problem is fighting at bedtime, not eating at dinner or tantrums in public, you wish there was a magic button to help you learn what to do.TLC has a show called The House of Tiny Terrors that got me thinking. Would I ever go on national television to get help parenting my children? As much as I'd love to have SuperNanny or the Expert Du Jour to help stop tantrums, I just don't think I can do it.
With television, you can't trust editing. Who knows how these shows could portray my children? (Yes, I know I write about my kids on the Internet, but, believe it or not, there's a lot of censoring when it comes to my children going on, especially as they get older.)
While as a parent and viewer, I enjoy these shows because I do feel like I'm learning things, I just don't want to be the guinea pig for everyone else.
What do you think? Could you go on TV to get parenting help? Is there a breaking point that might make you consider?
Supernannies to help with antisocial behavior
The steriotype of the prim British Nanny has endured for decades and has been recently reinforced by the popularity of reality TV series depicting nannies to the rescue in some seriously messed-up households. I watch these shows with a mixture of oh-thank-god-we're-not-as-bad-as-that-family and that-mom-is-a-complete-lunatic-this-must-be-fake.
But there must be something to the whole Nanny-as-omnipotent-fixer, because England's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has just implemented a "Supernanny" program in 77 areas of England, where stern child experts will attempt to clean up unruly child behavior.
Critics accuse the Prime Minister of interference in family life, but Mr. Blair counters that "You've got 12-year-olds out every night, drinking and creating a nuisance on the street, with their parents not knowing or even caring...in these circumstances, a bit of nannying, with sticks and carrots, is what the local community needs, let alone the child."
The Supernannies are actually child psychologists and will advise new parents and children, and step in when the kids get into trouble.
Time out spots: a place to park your naughty child
I admit that I am a fan of the "time out."
It's one of those things that before I was a parent, I swore I would never do. (You know, those things...) I
was sure I would be able to use positive discipline strategies and talk with my toddler about appropriate
behavior. Um. Yeah. No. Time outs (1 minute per year old) really worked for my older child from about 18-months-old until she was about 2.5. Once she was old enough to understand consequences (or losing privileges) for bad behavior, we stopped the time outs. You do what works for as long as it works, and then you try something else more age-appropriate, right?
Looking to capitalize on people like Jo Frost a.k.a. SuperNanny who recommend a "naughty mat" or "spot," a company called Time Out Spots is marketing their circular time out mats. The company slogan is "One Chance, Then Put 'em On The Spot." The mats cost $22 each, and they only come in pink and blue (or brown for dogs). I don't know about you but parking my kid in her crib at first (no, she did not have negative associations with her crib), and then on the stairs worked for us. We didn't need a special time out mat, but I'm sure there our people out there who will snap these up. What do you think? Would you buy one?

















