[.ca] Supernanny (ISBN 0340895179)

Keep TV fluff on tv...dont use it to raise your children:
If i could give this book negative stars, i would. The information that it contains is dangerous to children. Poor breastfeeding advice in this book contradicts recommendations from the Canadian Pediatric Society to exclusively breastfeed for the first six months and to continue to breastfeed until your child is two years of age and beyond. "Super"nanny tells parents to introduce solids at a much younger age and gives ridiculous advice to schedule and delay a baby's feedings, which can cause a poor milk supply for the mother and sabotage the breastfeeding relationship. Breastfeeding experts reccomend feeding on cue to maintain an adequate milk supply. Check out _Dr. Jack Newman's Guide to Breastfeeding_ instead! If you're looking for great parenting advice, check out Neufelt's book, Hold on to Your Kids. He teaches parents how to connect with their kids, not how to train them like pavlovian dogs, "super"nanny style.

Important antidote to the over-parenting generation:
Jo may be the media darling of contemporary television but much of what she preaches rests solidly on generations of common sense and authoritative research. Today's parents -- determined to teach their kids that actions have no consequences, that the world is fair, that their children are entitled to every thing and every kind of behavior, that there are no rules, that the artificial nourishing of a child's self-esteem is THE paramount goal of parenting -- NEED to read this book and remember who is in charge. I'm a PhD who listened to overly permissive voices and made every mistake in this book in pursuit of building my daughter's self-esteem... my daughter grew up with a fragile ego that developed into full-fledged clinical depression and a host of other problems. I'm not saying Supernanny could have cured her difficulties, but reading Jo's book back in the early 1980s might have helped me connect with some common sense limits and teach my daughter how to live in, and cope with, the real world.

Does not provide much depth:
I recently finished reading Supernanny. Took me about 45 minutes. I'm not a particularly fast reader, it's just that Supernanny doesn't present very much depth. Jo presents some catchy directives for parents, unfortunately they are very limited. She states they are based upon observation rather than theory. There is nothing wrong with this but if your parent-child relationship falls outside the realm of Jo experiences her directives will offer little help (theory can be helpful when facing parenting challengs!). Supernanny seems more like a comic book for parents rather than a reliable and in-depth parenting resource. I would look elsewhere - I liked Systemic parenting by Mark Gaskill (family therapist and parenting expert). It is probably the anti-thesis to Supernany and likely to be helpful in the long run.

Uninspiring!:
After reading Supernanny I find myself feeling uninspired. A fun read but without much merit and certainly without any depth whatsoever. Supernanny is certainly a hansom book and very easy to read, but, it's hard to get away with the fact that I was reading a book that provided no background or justification for the interventions and thoughts provided. It is merely the thoughts of Jo Frost be they correct or incorrect, helpful or less helpful. Jo Frost is a nanny, an actress, and an entertainer of the likes of Dr. Phil. 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. 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 parenting expert) and "Unconditional Parenting" by Alfie Kohn (a brilliant researcher and parenting expert).

Random Grammar Errors:
In terms of how to better communicate and understand children, the book was quite informative . However, the downside was layout and minor grammatical errors. I didn't like "My Top Ten Rules", they seemed to repeat themselves throughout the book, and white on black wasn't the best colour for those pages. Once every 10 pages or so, there'd be a sentence fragment or so. Overall, the price for this book is more than reasonable, and reveals many precious details kids have.