Governing Through Pedagogy: Re-Educating Citizens by Jessica Pykett

Author:Jessica Pykett [Pykett, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781135755706
Goodreads: 18976170
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

The promise of Supernanny’s ‘tried-and-tested’ parenting strategies and approaches

The TV show features parents who learn, with the help of Supernanny, how to be ‘better’ parents to their children. With this in mind, the show typically begins with chaotic scenes of children running riot, having tantrums and being rude or disrespectful to their parents who, in turn, are portrayed as being at their wits end or close to breaking point. In these opening scenes, viewers are told by a narrator of the particular problems facing the family that Supernanny will be working with in this particular episode. In episode 1 of series 2, for example, we are introduced to a family in which children are ‘out of control’. We are also introduced to the mother, Karen, who is depicted as being too soft on her children and feeling drained and lacking in energy because of the chaos created through her softness. In contrast, father, Jason, takes a ‘zero tolerance’ approach in his parenting, shouting at and smacking the children when he gets home from work. We are thus told of relationship problems between the mother and father, because of their disagreements about parenting styles and approaches (Supernanny 2005a). Episode 3 of the same series starts in much the same way with viewers introduced to ‘the youngest teenagers in town’ who ‘eat what they like, go to bed when they like and help themselves to everything. From using kitchen knives to hammering their dad’s credit card, these kids are out of control!’ (Supernanny 2005b). After general scenes of mayhem illustrating these observations and being introduced to the idea that the mother and father have different approaches to parenting, the narrator asks, ‘Can Supernanny, Jo Frost, put the young Pandits [family name] in their place? Or will mum and dad’s differences get in the way?’ (Supernanny 2005b).

Once the ‘problems’ are introduced and viewers have watched Frost observing a ‘typical’ day and set of events, in which she frequently turns to the camera to make disapproving comments about what she is witnessing, Frost offers her critiques which are always linked to a lack of discipline, respect and routine that the parents have failed to provide for their children. Once her diagnosis of the problems is confirmed, she returns the next day to get to work on introducing new rules and techniques that she feels will transform the family’s lives by restoring or creating happiness and harmony. This includes, for example, the Naughty Step Technique which works ‘to remove the child from the scene for a few minutes’ allowing them ‘time to cool down, think about what [they’ve] done and get ready to apologise’ (Frost 2005, p. 80). In her book, Frost gives the following example:

Your jealous four year old has pushed his little sister and thrown a toy at her. She’s fallen over and has started to wail. It’s all going pear-shaped. You’ll be furious; you might be worried and panicky too. Check first that your daughter is okay, resist the adrenalin surge that makes you want to yell at the top of your lungs and put the Naughty Step Technique into practice.

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