Hola chicos, on Tuesday I was invited to attend an event that turned out to be one of my biggest highlights since starting blogging almost one year ago. This was because I met Jo Frost, well known as TV’s Supernanny! Yes, that’s right, I met Jo, someone who I have followed for years, watching her TV shows and reading her books because we really found it useful. I even remember once saying to Nick that I would love to be selected to be on her program, LOL.
Bella is now 6 and she wakes up in the middle of the night and walks to my bedroom in the middle of the night and gets herself comfortable between Nick and I. This is something that has been bothering me for months now and I had it in my head for a while when I was on my way to meet Jo. I knew that this would be my opportunity to ask her for some advice.
The event was held at the most beautiful library in St Martins Lane. It was really close to Leicester Square. I really loved the place and all the details that it had around. Very pretty!
When I arrived I was greeted by the lovely people from BookTrust who were organising the event with Tots100. BookTrust, Britain’s largest reading charity, is launching a great campaign #BathBookBed where they are encouraging parents to stick to a simple bedtime routine with a soothing story to help their little ones sleep soundly.
New research conducted by BookTrust, shows that over 78% of parents say that lack of sleep is the hardest aspect of being a new parent. It goes on to say that some mums, dads and carers claim they would pay more than £10,000 to put an end to sleepless nights.
BookTrust has teamed up with Jo, who will be their ambassador for this fantastic campaign. Jo who has been a nanny for more than 20 years said that “Sleep deprivation is the most common complaint I hear from parents of young children. Tired parents and tired children are a recipe for disaster. But the solution doesn’t need to be complicated regimes or expensive gizmos. A routine as simple as bath, book, bed can get young children to settle so that everyone can benefit from a good night’s sleep”
According to Jo, you should start with a fun, warm and enjoyable bath time where your kids get the last opportunity of the day to release all their energy with some bubble time! Then, after being changed they should have story time in a more relaxing atmosphere. The lights should be down and all technology should be turned off. You should always be consistent and keep the same routine every day. If your kids wake up at 7am they should go to bed at 7pm the night before, so you should start your bedtime routine at 6 pm. I thought this was a very interesting tip.
Myself and 9 other bloggers were gathered together in a private room. We were all very excited to meet Jo and share some of our own experiences. We sat down around a table which felt far more comfortable. It was really informal and it was much easier to break the ice and start chatting. Jo is super famous around the world (Even my friends and family in Peru know about her), so I was not sure how she would be in person. I can tell you that she was exactly the same in person as she is on TV which I love because it shows me how real and down to earth she is. She genuinely cares a lot about us parents suffering with our children. I really felt that she was really there to share her 25 years of experience and give us all the advice that she could.
All of us told her a little bit of our stories but I must say that I was very lucky to be able to discuss the issue about Bella leaving her own bed in the night. As soon as she heard my story she said that my problem was one of the most commonly experienced problems and that she is often asked about how to deal with this.
We only have 2 bedrooms at home, so the girls need to share a room but we have been putting this off a little bit because we were always worried that they would wake each other up and would not have a good sleep. When Sienna was born Bella was just starting school and we really wanted her to have a good sleep so we decided to have different sleeping arrangements during the first year. I guess Bella got used to not being in her bedroom and it was difficult to keep her there. My major worry is having to put Bella back to bed and waking up Sienna. I explained this to Jo and this is what she said:
- You can’t let your 6 year old control you
- She knows that you have a big fear as you are worried that the little one (Sienna) will be disturbed
- Your daughter uses that to manipulate you and keeps waking up and moving to your bed
- I should not show this fear to my daughter
- I should make it very clear to her that she should not come to my bed and if she does she will be put back to bed as many times as needed
- If Sienna is disturbed I should not panic. Just finish dealing with Bella and put her back to bed and then sooth Sienna
- I should be persistent and this should be sorted in 3 days
I think the most important lesson was to not show my fear and make it very clear that she won’t gain anything coming back to my bedroom all the time. I still haven’t tried this yet but I will certainly be doing this but I have to be ready to do it as I will need all the possible strength and patience that I could have. I trust Jo, so I know that this will work.
I was really amazed that she took a fair amount of time discussing my story and I’m really grateful for that! We all got a copy of her book which I will certainly start reading soon to pick up even more of her tips. The book is called “Jo Frost’s Toddler Rules”.
We were also given a fantastic goody bag with lots of amazing books to read for the girls! Thank you so much BookTrust, Tots100 and Jo for making the day one of my best days of being a blogger so far! It was an honour to be invited and be part of this amazing event. It was a once in a lifetime experience!
If you want to know more about setting an effective bedtime routine for your children you can sign up to the BookTrust “14 Days to Better Sleep” trial and start enjoying better sleeps!
What do you think of this campaign? Have you heard of it before? Would you like to give this a try? Will you register for the trial? What do you think of Jo’s tips? Do your kids also have sleep problems? Leave a comment below as I would love to read your opinion.
*Disclaimer: I was invited to this event in exchange for a blog post but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Some photos were provided.
Thanks for stopping by,
Love you all ❤
Franca 💋
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I haven’t heard of the campaign but bath book bed is something we have been doing since birth really :/ he sleeps mostly ok. he wakes for sure sometimes but there is often a reason. he is nearly 3 and we have a stair gate on his door right now. I feel your pain though and it is tough. it is tough trying to break a habit because you need to go through some pain to get to the gain. i.e you need to have those 2-3 nights of saying no to bella and dealing with the fallout :/ ut hopefully it will be worth it 🙂 #KCACOLS
I’m actually really looking forward to the day when I can read a book to Marianna before bed – she has a really good bath and bed routine, but reading to her just gets her all excited and ready to play again! We still read in the day, but it’s not quite the same. x #KCACOLS
even before I had Layla I knew the importance of bath book bed. We started doing this with Layla at 4 months old and as parents we can already see the benefits. As soon as it gets to 6pm she gets whingy as she knows its time for her bath and soon cheers up as soon as we get to the bathroom. She has her bath and then we settled down for a story or two. In the last few weeks we have noticed how calm she is when we read and has, on a couple of occasions, fallen asleep on us! With the book added in we have found she goes to sleep much easier. I’m very jealous you got to meet Jo and glad she was as nice as she seems on TV! #KACOLS
This sounds like it was a really useful session. Thankfully I never had any sleep issues with either of the girls (not smug, just grateful! lol) so I didn’t really need to try and test sleeping routines, but these sound fab! I hope it works out for you. #kcacols
Wow sounds like a great day! My boys are pretty good at bedtime, although I do sometimes have issues with them staying asleep – my 3yo often appears in my room in the middle of the night!
We do bedtime stories every night without fail, but have never done daily baths, so that’s not part of our bedtime routine.
Good luck with implementing Jo’s tips!
#KCACOLS
I never called it that but Bath, Book Bed worked for all of mine. What a great blogger gathering that looks. #KCACOLS
I love Jo Frost!!!! Very jealous. I want her book now Mini R is hitting 2. #KCACOLS
Oh my goodness how exciting! what an interesting event in such a beautiful venue, and how cool to meet Jo Frost! I have had a bedtime book since two weeks old, really so that Mother and Father could make it part of my routine. It’s great to know this is along the right lines. Sounds like Jo gave great advice – I think Mother will need a copy of her book before too long…#KCACOLS
Jo gives really great advice and it’s all quite logical really. Her simple rules have really helped me get my little one into a good sleeping routine. So jealous! Must be have been awesome to meet her. X #KCACOLS
This is such a great campaign and we have been doing this with Amelia since she was about 6 weeks old and it’s worked like a charm ever since. Bath, Book & Bed its truly does work. Ooooh I think I may have to purchase this book. So thank you so much for hosting #KCACOLS
This sounds like it was a fantastic event. I have watched super nanny and think she has fantastic advice – hope it works for you! #KCACOLS x
Great post! My son loves books!! I will have to get him a bath book to see how he likes them! #KCACOLS
Looks like you had an amazing time and what a great experience. I love SuperNanny! She always has such helpful advice. We’ve always used that bath, book and bed routine with our son and it works really well. #KCACOLS
Thanks so much for sharing your experience! I have always loved Jo Frost as well and was very interested in hearing what it was like to meet her. Also my 2 year old is getting into the habit of wanting to sleep in our bed. It’s been pretty hard on me the last few weeks. So it was great to hear the advice that she shared. #KCACOLS
Thanks,
Sarah
Oh sleep.
One of the hardest topics for parents. We just started doing a bath, book, bed routine with my 13-month-old. I had no idea it was a running campaign, how interesting! I wonder if music goes along with technology, because I feel that he sleeps better with soothing music as he falls asleep.
I’ve seen soooo many SuperNanny episodes and I think she has wonderful advice much of the time. How neat that you were able to meet Jo and discuss your own parenting troubles with her! Thanks so much for sharing <3 #KCACOLS
Sounds like an awesome event. I was lucky my boys didn’t have the habit of wanting to sleep in our bed when they were little.
#KCACOLS
Franca I feel like I was there on your day, I wish I had been! I’ve ALWAYS wanted to meet Jo as I think she really is amazing at solving parenting problems. I loved your review on the event as it took me along with it. So glad she was so sweet and helpful, good luck with Bella! #KCACOLS
It sounds like you had a lovely day meeting one of your heroines – I wish you luck with sorting out Bella’s sleep issues. It must be completely exhausting for you. Jet comes into our room in the night occasionally, and I know when I have a disturbed night it knocks me out for the next day, so I wish you all the best with that.
x Alice
#kcacols
I’ve heard of this campaign but although we do ‘bath, book, bed’ Little B still ends up waking for milk feeds and always ends up in our bed…arghhhh! #KCACOLS
I’m reading this as she’s on the weekend show on TV! She seems really down to earth and helpful. Really good the book works and you can get bedtime tackled! #kcacols
We’ve always done bath, book, bed starting at 6. I can’t say I’m a well rested mama little b*ggers. Never heard of supernanny but if you want to send her my way I’m happy for her to practice on mine…
#KCACOLS
I used to watch Jo Frost’s Supernanny way before having a child was even an idea. I enjoyed seeing how she dealt with the children (and parents!). It seems like you had a great time and it must’ve been a valuable learning experience being able to meet Jo in the flesh. #KCACOLS
Oh my goodness I adore Supernanny! Jo Frost is a legend and how lovely that she is just as nice in real life. It is great the she took the time to listen to your story and offer you help. I think having a bedtime routine is really key to encouraging routine. Sometimes we rush it and this has reminded me that we need to ensure that we allow a proper hour 🙂 #KCACOLS
I think this is a great idea. My daughter loves to read so I would have no problem doing this with her.
We also love Jo Frost, we watch a lot of her programmes, she is brilliant, lucky you getting to meet her x
#KCACOLS
This sounds like a brilliant event, one that would be fun and helpful. Jo Frost must be the queen of good parenting, especially if your family in Peru have heard of her too. What a great opportunity. I hope it works when you try with Sienna.
Amanda. #kcacols