Supernanny Jo Frost Slams ‘Bachelor”s Madison Prewett for Spanking Plans

Supernanny Jo Frost is not a fan of spanking.

The reality star, 55, spoke with E! News in a recent interview and was asked about her thoughts on spanking children. Frost was directly asked about former Bachelor star Madison Prewett and her husband, who sparked controversy this past summer for saying it’ll be “hilarious” to spank their baby daughter, Hosanna.

“It’s an outdated practice… It holds no benefit for the relationship of the child or for the parent,” Frost began.

“And how is it that we have laws in other countries and laws in this country where it is a criminal offense to commit grievous bodily harm or to touch another adult,” she continued. “To hit another adult. And to think that we can just bypass that with our youngest, most vulnerable citizens of this country. They are human beings, too.” 

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Frost went on to say that hitting children shows a lack of control, a lack of emotional regulation and a misunderstanding of parenting.

“The sort of, ‘Well, it never did me any harm.’ That’s just not a viable response to what we know scientifically with the data that we have today to give cause to say that this should be acceptable in this country with families. It’s just not,” she added.

“I am against smacking. I think smacking should be banned in this country. Corporal punishment should be banned,” Frost affirmed. “And considering those children and the statistics of those children that receive that corporal punishment are those that have visible and invisible disabilities, and those children of color as well, it’s deplorable to me.”

At the end of July, Prewett and her husband, Grant Troutt, shared on their podcast, Stay True, that they’d both be open to using spanking as a form of discipline. They also said that the Bible supported their beliefs.

Troutt shared that it would be “hilarious” when they started using spanking as a way of punishing their daughter.

“The Lord’s discipline is always off the heels of disobedience or sin,” he said during the podcast episode. “So think about it, when you have a child, you don’t just discipline them for being good and obeying you, right?”

“Like, if Hosanna obeys us, we’re not like, ‘Come here girl, come here. Alright, pull ’em down, get that, you know, Mama, get here,’ ” continued Troutt. “Which will be hilarious, by the way, when we start spanking Hosanna. Which we will, on the record, because the Bible clearly says, ‘Folly is bound up in a child, but discipline drives it far away.'”

According to a 2019 statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, corporal punishment should not be used as a method to discipline children.

The follow-up advisory — published 20 years after its “Guidance for Effective Discipline” said parents should “be encouraged” not to use spanking for punishments — doctors noted that “there appears to be a strong association between spanking children and subsequent adverse outcomes.”