Does 'Supernanny' know best?

In Bullard's case, she and her husband run a plumbing business, and before Frost came in and set aside specific time for focusing on the children, Bullard spent a lot of time juggling work calls and her kids. She says she didn't discipline them much because the time she did spend with them would end up being consumed by fighting.

After her family's appearance on the show, she says, things are different. "We've gotten the control back in our house, so there's not as much testing the limits."

All the theories out there today about parenting can lead some moms and dads to say they feel self-conscious about the job they're doing - not sure if they're keeping up with the latest techniques and executing them correctly. Bullard says she and her husband knew about timeouts, for example, but not how to make them work effectively until Frost showed them.

One of Frost's techniques is having a "naughty" stool, mat, or room, where kids are sent to cool off - one minute for each year of their age. Parents must warn the child, she says, before using the naughty stool. If the bad behavior continues, mom or dad physically gets down on the child's level to talk about why he or she is being disciplined. An apology is expected at the end of the stool time.

(Ms. Nelson, of Children's Hospital, suggests it would be better if parents call it a "timeout" stool or something that changes the tone to suggest that the behavior, rather than the child, is naughty or bad.)

"For some reason, 'Supernanny' doesn't make me feel guilty like all those parenting magazines I stopped subscribing to," says Diane Danielson, a single mother in the Boston area, who has a 5-year-old son. "They just made me feel terrible about everything I'm not doing perfectly."

She often turns to the Internet when she has questions about her son's behavior. She'd like to see the TV shows tackle issues facing single moms - such as how to balance constructive play with household duties like cooking and cleaning.

Experts give the shows mixed marks, but many do like the way that the nannies stress the importance of routines, consistency, and clear expectations and consequences. Lack of consistency on following through with punishment is the biggest problem Supernanny Frost sees when it comes to discipline.

"A lot of parents give empty threats time and time again," she says. Parents invite disrespectful behavior when they allow their children to hit them without any consequences, for example.

That's something parents wouldn't allow from anyone else, she says, so why allow it from their kids?

Nina Priorie, a Long Island mom who appeared on "Nanny 911" - which returns to Fox later this season - has an 11-year-old daughter and 8-year-old quadruplets and says her home is less chaotic than it was before Nanny Stella, one of several on the show, arrived to help her and her husband come up with strategies for disciplining their brood. They are still in touch with Stella, who encouraged them to reduce the amount of yelling in their home, and to implement systems for rewarding good behavior.

She and others who've participated in the TV programs say they now talk much more with other moms and dads about strategies and problems. "You wouldn't believe the things we're learning about our neighbors and our friends," jokes Mrs. Priorie, who was surrounded by moms asking her questions about parenting during a recent school field trip.

"I'm really glad that we did this show," says Bullard, "because it helped us be able to communicate better with other parents."

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