She's been dubbed 'a real life Nanny McPhee' and charges a gargantuan £500 for her trouble shooting services. Parentdish caught up with Kathryn Mewes, author of new parenting book The 3 Day Nanny to find out more.
There are lots of parenting books out there, can you tell us what's different about The 3 Day Nanny and your approach to parenting?
Kathryn: My entire approach is about 'Keeping it real'.
Parenting is not easy, you will not always get it right ....and yes you will learn through your mistakes.
My book is about parents accepting that they have taken the easy option in some areas of their parenting and now they want to correct them. For example, parents may have always let their child climb into their bed at night but now they want their child to self settle and have the independence of sleeping in her own bed.
The easy option in life is often the wrong one, the difficult choice holds the reward.
My book is about following my three day plans to guide parents to making a change. I have not been regimented in my approach and I have given alternative ways of doing things. My book is the first book that says to have made an easy choice is fine, it happens and now with only three days set aside you can make the change.
My ethos is about guiding your children to make the right choices and taking parental control so that your child feels secure and content with his boundaries put clearly in place.
I would like to feel that parents reading my book will see that I am supportive, not judgemental.
I am the last person to judge, I have not been lucky enough to have children yet and I can only empathise with the emotional turmoil and guilt parenting places on ones shoulders. I pray to God that I experience this in the not too distant future.
Tell us about yourself and how you came to be a nanny?
From the age of 12 I was always fascinated by 'how children's brains worked' and by the time I was 13 my parents had made me aware of The Norland College.
I graduated from Norland with a distinction in 1994 and continued to nanny for 15 years. I had a true passion for understanding children and I found that I could see life through their eyes.
And about your work as a 'bespoke nanny'
From nannying I moved on to wanting to share my knowledge with parents to help them understand why their child behaves in a certain way and how to manage them.
I lived in Australia for 3 years and I started to provide my service of helping parents with challenging situations they were having with their children - their sleep, eating and behaviour.
I discovered that only three consecutive days with a family were needed before a fundamental change occurred. This was the discovery of The Bespoke Nanny Service. In 2010 I introduced this service to the UK and I have been offering it ever since.
What are/ were the most common challenges you face in your work?
The hardest time to be a good parent is when you are deprived of sleep.
Parents will call me because their children are not self settling and are waking several times in the night. This will then have a knock on affect in the day and a child's behaviour will be hard to manage.
The two most common challenges are sleep training and guiding parents to understand and manage their child's behaviour.
How did you have the idea for writing this book?
I was so fortunate. My idea is unique and I was written about in The Daily Telegraph. Vermilion found me through this and asked me to write down what I do. I thoroughly enjoyed writing the book and feel so pleased to know that I can reach out to all families either through my literature or in person.
If you could give parents a short piece of advice, what would it be?
Give your child choices and make them aware of the consequences of making the wrong choice.
Remain consistent in your parenting.
Embrace your child for who they are - you cannot change them... you can only work with what you've got.
Kathryn Mewes is the author of The 3 Day Nanny (Vermilion) £12.99. Kathryn also provides a unique service where family life can be turned around in just 3 days. For more information or to contact her go to www.bespokenanny.com.