Supernanny: How to Get the Best from Your Children
Supernanny: How to Get the Best from Your Children
Author: Jo Frost (Usually dispatched within 24 hours)
Uninspired!After reading Supernanny I find myself feeling uninspired. A fun read but without much merit and certainly without any depth whatsoever. Jo Frost is a nanny, an actress, and an entertainer of the likes of Dr. Phil. However, do not let yourself get swept away in Nanny 911 or Supernanny craze. Parenting and the emotional health of your children is much too important to rely upon a woman who is grabbing her 15 minutes of fame. If you are looking for a parenting resource check out the books that have been written by professionals who avoid the publicists, marketers, and agents that are moving this book up the charts.
I would suggest that parents turn to resources such as “Systemic Parenting” by Mark Gaskill (a family therapist) and “Unconditional Parenting” by Alfie Kohn (a brilliant researcher and parenting expert).
mixed feelings about this book!
After reading Supernanny I am met with mixed feelings. The book looks real good, but it lacks the detail that I was looking for. I am very concerned that it does not cover the important “why” questions that parents interested in long-term healthy change might want to ask. For example, “is my child acting this way merely because he’s a bad kid?” Or, “is my kid acting this way in response to underlying issues that I am not seeing or addressing very well?” The later question might be a bit more difficult to ask, but it, when asked, leads to greater degrees of parent-child intimacy. My concern with Supernanny is that it provides the parents with parenting interventions but has no depth regarding what leads to these behaviors. Unfortunately, this can (as a psychologist might say “destructively pathologize the child” - placing blame on the child when his or her behaviors are actually a response to a problem, or an indication that his or her needs are not being met in the most healthy way possible). The child’s behavior might be a response to a stressor or condition that the parent will now overlook because he or she has the Supernanny cookie cutter intervention.
Again, Supernanny looks real good - probably should be credited to the team of marketers rather than Jo herself. It just lacks depth. For thinking parents I would strongly suggest that you take a look at a book titled: “Systemic Parenting: An Exploration of the Parenting Big Picture” written by a family therapist and parenting expert named Mark Gaskill. Supernanny definitely fails in comparison.
A Super Guide for Both Mums and Dads
Jo Frost gives many sensible suggesions for parents to try in order to get more compliance from the children. I don’t agree with every technique but the majority of them sound like they might work for my family. We have already had success with our picky eaters following the advice in the book. Bedtime is much smoother too after using her strategies for keeping our son in his own bed all night long. I like this book for 3 main reasons: It is parent friendly without clinical or judgmental language, it is set up as a quick reference guide so you do not have to read the entire book to get some specific information to solve a specific behavior problem and it covers a wide spectrum of concerns for the early years (2’s, 3’s, 4’s and 5’s). We also like another parent friendly guide called “The Pocket Parent” for the exact same reasons. Both of these discipline guides have offered us many suggestions and solutions to gaining more cooperation from our children.