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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Supernanny

23:22 / 07.07.04

Only caught the latter half of this, since we were watching The Long Firm, and Xoc (whose job it is to do the technical video-setting schtuff) didn't record the whole thing.

What I did see gave me terrible Proustian flashbacks to the (seeming purgatorial) time I spent as a junior trainee in Child & Family Psychiatry. Even though I went into that post acutely aware of my own relative youth and childlessness, and the (to me) inappropriateness of my lecturing parents on how to manage their kids, I was soon astounded at the crapness of some parents - and how very basic rules of consistency-with-children apparently eluded them.

Watching the second half of Supernanny, I was struck by how sensible Jo (aside: what's with this Channel 4 vogue for dressing 'makeover' experts as voluptuous 1950s dominatrixes?) was, and how clearly she managed to explain the (ABC - Actions, Behaviour, Consequences) principles underpinning successful childcare. This week's brat, Charlie, was a great advert for contraception, and I found myself howling at his parents' inability to enact Jo's very clear rules. Not that these were the crap parents I remember from Child & Family Psych; rather, they were simply stressed, overworked people who'd let the situation get out of control. One thing I do recall clearly from my time counselling such parents is the importance of maintaining communication: any cracks in the relationship are mercilessly exploited by His Majesty, The Toddler.

Next week, I'll be sure to catch the whole thing.

01:04 / 08.07.04

Strangely - or perhaps not - this was an almost blow-for-blow clone of Little Angels on BBC1, the main difference being that this has twice the running time. It was entertaining, as watching silly people make a godawful mess of things always is, but I'd be surprised if I'm still watching by the time the series ends. There are only so many pieces of advice you can give to parents of little brats, surely, and we already seem to have had the standard situations - spoilt kid, tantrums, time-out space, punishment of bad behaviour and reward of good...

06:08 / 08.07.04

It was very interesting, not least because the brat has the same offline name as Zoot, which made me and Mrs Sax quiver with fearful anticipation of the next two years.

The problem with being liberal pinko parents is that in an ideal world you want to let your children run wild with the breeze of freedom of expression in their hair, but this immediately becomes impractical and quite destructive. Despite my managerial job in which I rule a department with an iron fist and the occasional use of the riding crop, I turn into jelly when faced with the crumpled features of my baby who just wants another Cow & Gate biscuit before bed time.

In other words, it all seems to make sense in theory but I'm anxiously anticipating having to put that sort of thing into practice.

Perhaps I'll just go into the garden and read George Morrison comics at times of stress, and leave the grown-up stuff to Mrs Sax.

07:19 / 08.07.04

Ahhh, but Li'l Zoot will soon learn to target you, out there in the garden with your wish-fulfilment comics, and you may find yourself accidentally undermining Mrs Sax's authoritah.

I'm pretty sure they'll manage to spin the series out, E Randy. There's only so many variants on 'use vinegar to clean everything' but I'm still watching the other bulky dominatrix, on How Clean Is Your House?.

09:18 / 08.07.04

Can we have a How Clean is Your House thread please?

09:25 / 08.07.04

[kim] Ooh, you lazy little dirt-monkey! Go and start it yourself! [/kim]

09:30 / 08.07.04

I'd just like to point out that "sitting on the naughty step" has the greatest euphemism potential I've encountered in a long time.

09:34 / 08.07.04

Well, quite - which is doubtless why Channel 4 are doing the whole 'finger-waggy dominatrix' thing with their Makeover TV queens (see also scary Kim from How Clean Is Your House? and bepearled Kirsty from Location, Location, Location). Sublimated SM aplenty - with, in this case, added fantasy infantilism...

09:35 / 08.07.04

Indeed.

The most telling bit of that program and the parents total inconsistency with regard to routine and discipline, was when Charlie went and sat himself on the naughty step after he was naughty but nobody did anything about it. He looked completely perplexed about the whole confusing affair.

10:19 / 08.07.04

Yes, I thought that was odd too! bless him. I suppose it demonstrates that children (especially his age) can't get enough attention - and him sitting on the step voluntarily was another way of getting some!

Jack The Bodiless

11:11 / 08.07.04

Kim in HCIYH is totally not a dominatrix. She's the Northern Nan archetype - didn't you see those repulsive surfers last night ducking with every mal mot, but with that little grin on their faces that said "we love our mam"?

11:16 / 08.07.04

Kim in HCIYH is totally not a dominatrix.

She totally is - or that's how she's being spun, anyway, with the severely scraped-back hair thang.

Oh, for fuck's sake. I'll start a thread, then, shall I?

14:27 / 08.07.04

It doesn't take long, deary. Just a couple of capfuls of vinegar and rub really hard.

10:23 / 09.07.04

Ganesh:
"Well, quite - which is doubtless why Channel 4 are doing the whole 'finger-waggy dominatrix' thing with their Makeover TV queens (see also scary Kim from How Clean Is Your House? and bepearled Kirsty from Location, Location, Location)."

And don't forget "Queen of good taste" Naomi Cleaver, whose latest show "Honey I Ruined the House" (on the same night as Supernany and How Clean...) I reckon must be her revenge for not having been asked to do Changing Rooms. She's definitley a variation on the dom theme, but which one I'm not certain - Posh Nanny? Boarding School Teacher? Prefect? Jealous Older Sister? She's definitely a lot more cross than the others, in fact there seems to be genuine pent up rage there (hence the 'revenge' suspicions).

What about that American woman who does Life Laundry? She's incredibly strict, ruthless even, but is she dom?

A friend of mine reckons these "look at the state of yourselves!" progs are A Good Thing as they cover all the stuff they don't teach you at school - see also Alvin Hall (personal finance). Any thoughts?

10:31 / 09.07.04

Ah yes, Nasty Naomi. I tend to think of her as Bitchy Older Prefect Who Laughed At Your Shoes but you're right, there's definitely a steelier edge to her, as her name suggests. Leave it to Cleaver.

As for whether these 'pull your socks up, dullard' programmes are a Good Thing, Saveloy, I reckon there's a whole separate thread there - which I may just go on to start meself...

11:24 / 09.07.04

Ganesh:

"Ah yes, Nasty Naomi. I tend to think of her as Bitchy Older Prefect Who Laughed At Your Shoes..."

Heh heh, now that would be Trinny and Suzanna. They don't have Cleaver's drive, her need to correct, to purify. In WWII, T & S would have been Flashman types, ex school bullies now doing the decent thing for King and Country in the cockpit of a Hurricane. Cleaver would have been on the other side, compulsively polishing her jackboots.

"As for whether these 'pull your socks up, dullard' programmes are a Good Thing, Saveloy, I reckon there's a whole separate thread there - which I may just go on to start meself..."

Ooh yes, do it, please!

11:43 / 09.07.04

[mr claypole] 'Tis done! [/mr claypole]

20:17 / 14.07.04

"You do NOT bite me."

Excellent one this week, with Jo Frost (who I think is super-duper wonderfullest) managing to turn around the inconsistent, guilt-spendy young single mother with what appeared on first sight to be the kids from Hell.

This one really rang Child Psych bells. I can remember so-o-o many tearful young women with children who routinely screamed, hit, bit, drew on, stripped and, on one occasion, set fire to house furnishings. I remember conversations wherein I suggested the 'toy removal' rule, only to be met with wide-eyed horror: "but, Doctor, that'd be cruel!"

Kelly, the mother in this week's Supernanny, initially had those same problems - but was at least able to recognise her inconsistencies and address them, difficult as it seemed. I just wish Jo's intensive three-week turnaround were available on the NHS.

At one point, the instinctively-authoritative Jo observed that, if Kelly didn't take the kids' (particularly Sophie's) behaviour in hand, they'd head out into the wider world having learned that screaming, punching and bedwetting are a) acceptable, and b) a great way of gaining maternal attention.

Yeah, I thought, a new generation of Internet trolls...

08:16 / 15.07.04

Having an interesting discussion with a colleague who's also a single mother, on the use of Naughty Step vs Naughty Corner. My colleague, who has a six-year-old son, is a firm advocate of the Step (as shown in last week's Supernanny) while this week's method involved the kid(s) being put in a corner instead.

I suspect the difference is to do with number of children. The Naughty Step probably works best with a single child, as it's possible for them to be left there to 'reflect' with relatively little distraction. With two or more kids, however, it's perhaps more likely that the second child would need to go up or downstairs, and distract from the step-themed purgatory.

That's our theory, anyway. 'Naughty Corner' doesn't have quite the same innuendo possibilities, though; I hope we return to the Naughty Step asap...

Tryphena Absent

13:12 / 15.07.04

(I think Naomi Cleaver might be a Housemistress. Ya?)

18:08 / 05.04.05

It's baaack. Tonight, 9pm...

19:45 / 05.04.05

First night alone: so far Karen's amazing me.

19:47 / 05.04.05

And Jason's being a prat.

20:50 / 05.04.05

Oh wow, I didn't know this thread was here. I love Supernanny, and I absolutely love Jo. One of the recurring responses from the crappy parents is how amazed they were at how nice Jo was! - Like, wow, I had no idea you could be a nice person and still get kids to behave! and no idea that's why I was such a crappy parent!

Stateside, we also have Nanny 911 on a rival network, and interestingly enough it's nowhere near as good - the nannies are fine, they apparently do their jobs well enough, but they lack the wonderful clarity and brevity of Jo's instructions.

It's funny though that both shows use British nannies - I know there's going for the whole Mary Poppins caricature, but at the same time, there's the implication that Americans have no clue how to raise children and have to import Europeans to do it properly. Which may be true, if the show's any indication....

21:11 / 05.04.05

Americans have no clue how to raise children and have to import Europeans to do it properly.

Two words which kind of demolish that argument:
Louise Woodward.

22:31 / 05.04.05

Mmm... conclusive...

The US versions use UK nannies too? That's a bit odd - unless they're actively courting the pervier audience element which likely associates a "British" accent with discipline...

Must admit I did the jaw-drop thang when tonight's 6-year-old started screaming at his mother that she was a "fucking cunt". Looovely.

14:03 / 06.04.05

The US versions use UK nannies too?

Yes - Supernanny of course is Jo. Nanny 911 has a staff of three nannies and a headmistress-type as the head of the fake nanny company, all from the UK. The nannies on that show all wear wool hats and cloaks with an insignia of some sort on the breast... it's really silly, but they seem to be going for a kind of old-fashioned "institutional but charming" look whose silliness would be too apparent if they used Americans, probably. I think actually the association is not with discipline so much as being "proper" and reserved, drinking tea from a little cup with your pinky in the air and all that.

14:07 / 06.04.05

Ah, okay. Nostalgia.

14:32 / 06.04.05

My GOD but those children were bad. I would have sold them all for slave trade by now if they were mine.

And how many times do parents have to hear that the key to discipline is to work together before it sinks in? They say it in every book and on every single programme about parenting I have ever seen but you still see Dad harrumphing about the house being the angry bear, whilst Mummy gathers her brood in her arms regardless of how utterly awful they were two minutes ago.

19:27 / 17.08.05

It's Hell's own child!

20:49 / 17.08.05

omg, that girl in today's episode was a complete maniac!
i like the show especially when supernanny says the kids are being 'unasseptable'.

12:24 / 18.08.05

I live for her pronunciation of that word. I imagine nanny Jo telling me everything I do is unasseptable.

21:11 / 09.06.06

And Miss Frost is looking fantastic next to Lois Lane on the Jonathan Ross show right now. Mmmmm... Nesessary...

21:20 / 09.06.06

I thoroughly support the revival of this thread. Yay Supernanny!