She has unfailing patience. Sylvie Jenaly has been, since 2013, the face of Super Nanny. This housekeeper and mother of two children took over the show after the death of Cathy Sarraï. She mixes authority and kindness in the face of completely overwhelmed families. After a period of hiatus which lasted from 2019 to 2021, where she wanted to distance herself from television, the most famous nanny of the PAF intends to continue the adventure. We find her in the tenth season of Super Nanny.
“It’s not easy to be left to your own devices” : Sylvie Jenaly’s observation in Super Nanny
Tele-Leisure : This is your tenth season of Super Nanny this year, what does it mean to you?
Sylvie Jenaly : I am delighted, I have this opportunity to bring my experience to families. So much the better, because they demand a lot. Support within families is something that is lacking. There is no parenting school, there are no instructions. Being a parent is something you learn, I wrote a book about it. This is a bit my observation, it’s not easy to be left to your own devices.
Have your methods changed since you first appeared on the show?
Of course ! I evolve at the same time as what I read, what I hear, from child psychologists, from neuroscience, from my experiences, from those of others. You have to feed on all that. You also have to remember that it’s a TV show, that sometimes there is an editorial. With the years that pass, the experience, and the confidence that people have in me, for several years I have been doing as I wish. So that also changed a lot of things.
That’s to say ?
I am asked for a little less firmnesswe will say. Those years were terrible for me. Yes it was complicated, already the fact of being in the media, the notoriety, thatI am asked to highlight an image which was not necessarily completely mine. That was the game, that’s how it was. Which didn’t prevent me from still being able to do my job. Today, and it’s been a while, I’m in tune, and the production is also in tune with me, so it’s wonderful. Caring and positive education helped me find this freedom.
“Sugar pasta will remain an anthology moment” : Sylvie Jenaly (Super Nanny) returns to this cult sequence
Is there a moment that particularly stood out to you during these ten seasons?
Each time, it’s a new energy, each family is a discovery. They all brought me lots of memories in the end. Like sugar pasta yes, this moment will remain an anthology for me. I discovered that in a northern region, sugar pasta was a real local recipe, but it wasn’t quite like that, my mother took a shortcut. The show with the twins in Belgium was very serious for me, I broke my kneecap, I fell. I think they are very brave to call Super Nanny because we know the consequences, we know that they will pass through the screen. Today with social networks, people are so friendly…
Did you meet any children again that you had seen during the first shoots?
I have them on social media, some of them. Sometimes I wonder if it’s fake, because that happens too. Some tell me that these are the children of families I went to and when I dig deeper, I realize that it’s not true… It’s surprising but yes it happened to me.
Isn’t it trying for you to become attached to families and have to say goodbye to them?
It’s a real psychological exercise that I learned to do to protect them. There are real connections being created. When I knock on the door, I learned to say to myself: ‘Be careful, you only have a week’. It’s an exercise I’m used to, even if it’s still annoying. When a child cries in your arms because he doesn’t want you to leave, of course it’s complicated. But all the families have my phone number when I leave and my social networks.
“Of course it didn’t come up…” : This moment that you don’t always see in Super Nanny
How do you experience the observation phase? Isn’t it too hard for you not to intervene?
It’s terrible because sometimes I could already intervene, give them advice, but it’s the construction of the show that means I can’t always. But it’s very useful to me. And if I really have to intervene, I intervene. When people scream too much, cry too much, I have to cajole and reassure. Of course it’s not edited, because we have to stay within the charter of the show but on the ground, the charter, sometimes we don’t care, because it’s human above all.
Do you think children are generally more rambunctious today than before?
Yes, since we let them go beyond the limits and then the screens, the internet, the television… There are a lot of demands from children today, they want everything, right away. It’s a societal problem, it’s neither the parents’ fault nor the children’s. Parents no longer know how far they can go, they are afraid of being too authoritarian. Whereas authority is not at all meanness, it is helping your child, it is giving him limits.
Are you still a governess aside from the show?
I was again during Covid-19 because I decided to take a television break because I was exhausted and that was good, because the audiences were starting to stagnate a little. And if I have to go back, I’ll go back again. But the show is my priorityhelp people and above all give them confidence.
What advice could you give to overwhelmed parents?
That they have confidence in themselves, in their ability in their parental role and that they appeal to their instinct because it is benevolent.
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