Jo Frost of 'Supernanny' fame still stands by timeouts for 'creating some positive, healthy boundaries'

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Global parenting expert Jo Frost, who gained fame through her popular TV show Supernanny, believes the trendy term gentle parenting is confusing and unclear.

“What does gentle parenting mean apart from the fact that we must as parents become more conscious of meeting our children’s needs?” Frost tells Yahoo Life. “Some will say it means no discipline and no consequences at all and others will say it does. That’s my point, nobody is quite clear.”

Frost’s show ran in the U.S. in the mid 2000s, and had several versions in different countries. In each episode the British nanny would visit a new family and help both children and parents navigate everything from toddler tantrums to sibling rivalry to bedtime meltdowns and more.

Frost has been in the nanny business more than 35 years, and although she’s no longer on television, she is still very much helping families online.

Aside from gentle parenting, avoiding timeouts is another technique gaining popularity that Frost disagrees with. Frost — known for using a timeout chair — recommends children remain in timeout for one minute per age. If a child gets up before the time is over, the timer is reset to the beginning.

“Timeout and Jo Frost seem quite synonymous with one another because obviously it was a practice of mine within my shows, but it seems now that has been taken out of context [and] misconstrued,” Frost says. “Every person has their own agenda of what a timeout is. They will make up what a timeout is and they will then unravel why it’s no good. And then there is my version of what I call a timeout that is modified from a practice that was happening back in the 1900s, a very clear explanation of the importance of why a timeout creates healthy boundaries and the importance of that. It would seem that a lot ... have abused the timeout to really control a child rather than to feel like they are creating some positive, healthy boundaries.”

One good change she’s witnessing is parents being more aware of how they were raised and how it translates to their own parenting style.

“We’ve hit a paradigm, a universal shift, in the world today where many adults are becoming more conscious of their own upbringing and how they were raised and recognizing the bits that weren’t so great and the bits that were fantastic and becoming more conscious about the parents they want to be rather than being on autopilot, and that can only be a very good thing for the world,” says Frost, who does not have any children of her own.

Throughout the years with the introduction of new techniques, different approaches and changing styles, Frost says her beliefs always stay consistent.

“My philosophy and my style has always been for parents to become confident in the process of understanding the gray area, the middle of parenting,” she says. “It’s about understanding the importance of how you intuitively and objectively, with assertiveness, connect with your family. I think that’s really important for families to understand, especially the newer generation when we are living in a world that is so polarized with parenting advice. It’s important to understand that in today’s world, where there is so much information, it can be rather confusing for a lot of parents.”

She’s often asked if she keeps in touch with the thousands of families she’s helped over the years. They will occasionally send photos or updates on their family, but she does not initiate the interaction.

She calls the correspondence a pleasant surprise, but it’s all business for Frost.

“Professionally you are there to help these families at a time when they really do need you, and professionally I respect those boundaries,” Frost says. “It’s lovely to hear from them and see photos and drop a note back, but professionally I don’t go around writing emails to all the families because that would be crossing healthy boundaries.”

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