I saw “Supernanny” Jo Frost doing a television interview on FOX News yesterday and immediately stopped what I was doing. For some reason this no-nonsense British nanny, with her trademark catch-phrase “Go and sit on the naughty step” has intrigued me from the very first time I “accidentally” caught a few minutes of her ABC show more than two years ago. I have been hooked ever since.
I often wonder why it is that I am so riveted by her show. I’m not clear if it is because like re-modeling shows on HGTV (Home and Garden Television) I am a sucker for the “reveal” (I do like to see the family’s transformation by the show’s end). Or, I wonder if it is because every once and a while I am able to pick up a few discipline tips to apply to my own child? Whatever the case, there is something about this woman’s ability to bring peace to chaotic home environments that has made me a fan.
Now, getting back to Frost’s FOX News interview. I was stunned to hear “Supernanny” admit that she is unsure if she will have children of her own. What? One of the world’s experts on telling others how to control their children may never apply all of her tried and true methods on her own brood? I was shocked.
“I can’t hear the biological clock going tick, tick, tick, right now,” Frost told the interviewer. “I’m 36 and when I meet somebody and when we decide that we will have children then maybe we will. But maybe we won’t have children. I don’t feel that urgency that many women have.”
Perhaps, all those families with all their struggles have simply worn out poor Frost? Or, perhaps, she is simply too busy. After all, she’s got a hit TV show, which is aired in more than 50 countries, she’s already written a best-selling book, and this week is she’s releasing a second volume: “Ask Supernanny: What Every Parent Wants to Know.” How would she possibly find time to help others parents struggling to discipline their children if she’s doing the same with her own?
By the way, for you parents with children who push the boundaries, take note… Frost maintains children have always misbehaved, but the difference now is the lack of respect that children have for their parents.
“Parents are almost fearful of disciplining their children. They are scared they are going to lose the connection with them when they are teenagers or adults. They are held to ransom by words like ‘I hate you’ and take it personally,” she said. “Parents lack the confidence to stand up and say ‘No.'”
And to her critics who call her the “devil version of Mary Poppins,” Frost simply laughs it off. Her response: “I certainly don’t have horns growing out of head … I work with the families and I am very dedicated and passionate and what I do makes a difference to families.”
How can you not like her after hearing that?