'Supernanny' Helps Vanquish the Brat Pack

By Jacqueline Cutler, Zap2it, Zap2It.com | July 12, 2008

Jo Frost on 'Supernanny'

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The screeching reaches a din not usually heard outside of zoos or middle-school parties.

Children throw toys, food and one another. They punch, scratch, slap, kick, bite, and ignore adult authority, if any is actually exercised.

The adults are, at best, ineffectual, and the children feral. Some would consider them an endorsement for birth control.

Unless someone intervenes, these children will eventually unleash their uncivilized fury on society. That someone is Jo Frost of ABC's "Supernanny," which has its second-season finale Monday, May 1.

"I don't believe in giving up," Frost says as she sips green tea at a Manhattan hotel. "You never give up hope, never. I can understand parents who say, 'I am exhausted mentally and physically.' But never give up. Who is going to do that if you can't? It's a commitment, 24-7. I'm not saying that it's easy."

Frost bravely enters houses most folks would run from. She embraces children others find too unruly to love. Truly, Frost should wear a cape, and as superhero music heralds her arrival, she should alight in the midst of frantic households where walls are canvases and parents are doormats.

Instead, the British nanny warmly greets families, then observes them before recommending changes. Frost devises plans to help organize chaotic households.

Her suggestions are sensible, such as insisting toddlers not eat chips for breakfast nor be allowed to run out of the house and into the street alone. Frost has children pitch in with chores, and by explaining what everyone must do, she helps bring about much-needed order. Once children are on set schedules and sleeping enough, so are parents, which helps mend frayed nerves.

Being organized, rational and calm are the mainstays of Frost's way of helping. She recommends having a room, stair or even chair to which children must retreat when they have broken rules.

All this is detailed in her best-seller, "Supernanny: How to Get the Best From Your Children." Her second book, "Ask Supernanny: What Every Parent Wants to Know," is scheduled to hit bookstores this summer.

Frost makes no bones about her qualifications; she is not a pediatrician, psychologist or any professional other than an extremely sensible woman whose loving but firm guidelines helped many in England and here. She is also not a mom.

"I'm 36," she volunteers, proving Hollywood creature is another group to which she does not belong. "I don't yet feel the broodiness of 'I must have children.' When I meet somebody, and if we should have a family," she says, her voice trailing off. "I just don't feel the pressure some women feel to have babies."

Though she wears a wedding band, Frost laughs when asked about a husband. "He'd have to be Houdini," she says, explaining the ring belonged to her mother, who died 12 years ago. As Supernanny, she travels constantly; having worked in 20 states for the show, she lives out of a suitcase.

Frost giddily recalls how she went from being another nanny with 16 years experience to becoming Supernanny. "I was reading a family magazine and looking after twins," she recalls. Scanning for ads about children's theater to which she could take her charges, Frost noticed a small ad that read, "If you have been a nanny for five years and could give advice to turn around a chaotic house, please call this number."

She called, and soon went on an interview. "They called me and said, 'There's a woman with four kids in a little bit of a pickle. Would you mind doing a pilot?'"

Luckily, she was with an actress friend who explained what a pilot is. Frost went to the woman's house, "and these children had manners like they were in a zoo," she says.

Then, exhibiting her characteristic empathy, she quickly adds, "They just needed their mom to set boundaries."

Those children, like most she works with, reacted well to Frost's rules. Shortly after, as she was crossing a busy street, her cell phone rang. She was offered the job of Supernanny. Frost recalls standing slack-jawed, as traffic buzzed around her. The show went on in England in June 2004 and here in 2005; it now airs in 47 countries. If all goes well, when Frost leaves a home, all is running smoothly.

"The biggest help she did for me was to help me get more organized in the morning," Cathy Schwartz of New York's Long Island says. Frost crafted a chart for each of her four girls detailing what must be done in the morning. Now getting them to the bus stop is no longer a breathless race.

Frost's prowess is not just organizational, though such skills can't be discounted when some families spend inordinate amounts of time in the morning searching for shoes.

"I wish I would have had Jo come into my house sooner," Schwartz says. "Years of letting them do whatever they wanted to do made my life and my husband's life miserable. It took Jo to make me realize I had to follow through with my threats. I think Jo is absolutely wonderful, and the greatest thing that ever happened to me and my family was having her come in and help us. We miss her and wish she could be with us every day."