ABC's 'Supernanny' Rocks the Cradle
CBN.com You’ve seen her as "Supernanny." You’ve seen her take on some tough cases, and now you’ll see her in another role. Supernanny Jo Frost has been known to take on some pretty tough cookies. Now, Jo is sharing her expertise with parents of infants in her latest book, Confident Baby Care.
Tim Branson: People know you for handling rowdy, uncontrollable kids and now you’re talking about babies. Why the change? Why the shift?
Supernanny Jo Frost: I’ve been a nanny and in child care for over 20 years. I started out looking after newborn babies so to me, it became very organic to bring to the America audience, my knowledge in baby care and to really set a standard of how we become confident parents from the beginning.
Branson: What does that mean to become a confident parent?
Supernanny: It means a parent who is able to make decisions, and in doing so, remain consistent, follow through, and see results. That brings an enormous amount of confidence in a parent in knowing that up until now, they’ve done a good job.
Jo helps parents navigate the maze of decisions they’ll face – bottle or breast feeding, what stroller to buy, will mom go back to work or stay home? Whatever the question, Jo believes mom and dad need to talk about it together.
Supernanny: I really wanted to be able to give in this book the options for parents, so they could make the decisions themselves. I want to encourage parents to keep talking, and certainly there are parents who are on their own and raising infants single handedly. It is important to talk about reaching out to your extended family and your friends, and feeling ok to reach out. It’s ok for mom’s to want a break and to do that, so that she's not feeling guilty because she decided to sleep for afternoon, and put herself first. The baby needs you to be healthy so that you can give all it needs and be ready for the demands of a newborn.
Branson: Where does dad fit into all of this?
Supernanny: By doing as much as he possibly can. The dad of today in the twenty-first century absolutely loves it. There are dads that are taking paternal leave and absolutely making sure that they have time off for when the newborn has arrived. It's important to make those conscious decisions. How am I going to get more involved? What can I actually do?
Branson: I absolutely love that. The father comes at it like... the baby’s doing things… and what do I do?
Supernanny: Well, you’re also anxious and so nervous about holding your baby that’s so tiny, that you continue to dote and stare at it for hours. You’re so in love with your newborn.
In her show, Supernanny, Jo stresses the importance of routines. She says the same holds true for your infant.
Supernanny: Routine puts into place organization, and it really creates good time management, and it allows us to put other things into place and to manage, so you are not so overwhelmed by meeting needs and demands of the newborn. It also helps you do the daily things that you need to do during the day.
Jo recognizes that even the most loving parent can lose their temper with an inconsolable baby. That’s why she talks candidly about shaken baby syndrome, and what to do before it happens.
Supernanny: The importance is to eliminate why your baby is crying first and foremost. Does the baby need a diaper change? Do I need to feed the baby? And when it’s not that case, and you’ve checked everything off, and realize the baby's still crying, and are beginning to overboil, place the baby down in their crib and walk away. Take a breather for five minutes and know then that you can compose yourself, and you can go back and pick up the baby, and then start again. One thing is certain about this journey called parenthood… you never stop learning. As soon as one thing comes up, you think, 'I’ve got that,' and as soon as you figure that out, something else comes along. Now what do you do? The more knowledge you have, the more you’re going to empower yourself as a parent to make those decisions that are for the better for you as parents and for your newborn and enjoy that experience.
