ATI Family featured on TV Show "World's Strictest Parents"

[holierthanyou]

The UK show "World's Strictest Parents" just featured an episode where two teens are sent to Fort Rock Family Camp (The same camp where the Duggar boys stayed and Jim Bob got Josiah shot in paintball) to stay with the ATI family that owns the camp.

 

They literally used the word "defrauding" to talk about how some teen girls dress "these days".

 

It was an episode worth watching, in my opinion. Be warned though- the show typically presents the "strict parents" as saviours for these "unruly" teens.

[missbrooklyn]

I have to wonder if these teens would be as unruly if they had a normal upbringing. Must be tough to be 17 and be able to view all the crap as crap, and not be able to do anything about it. Let's marry him to Joy Anna and they can both leave this idiot cult together.

[demgirl]

I've seen World's Strictest Parents on some U.S. network playing repeats. I have to be honest, I often wonder if there isn't more behind some of the kids' problems and if they really are being appropriately addressed by sending them to insanely strict parents. I feel like the show could easily cross the line to damaging already damaged kids and it makes me a little nervous. I'm sure some of them are just "bad kids", but there's usually some underlying emotional issues, dont' you think?

[Lillian]

Does anyone have a link for the episode?

[holierthanyou]

Oh gosh, I definitely view it as "reality tv". I assume the kids (who are often 18 or 19 and technically adults) agree to sign up for the free trip abroad. I believe they only stay with the "host family" (which is who the strict parents are) for 3 or 4 days. So while I don't see it as being helpful to the teens, I also don't see it as being any more 'damaging' than being on any other reality show would be.

[fluttershies]

I have to wonder if these teens would be as unruly if they had a normal upbringing. Must be tough to be 17 and be able to view all the crap as crap, and not be able to do anything about it. Let's marry him to Joy Anna and they can both leave this idiot cult together.

The teenagers aren't raised fundie, they're just sent to live with an ATI family.

[Visionoyahweh]

The teenagers aren't raised fundie, they're just sent to live with an ATI family.

Good, so there's zero chance of the BS sticking.

[Dark Matters]

Good, so there's zero chance of the BS sticking.

Unless they're already damaged/vulnerable and the cult can then hook them.

[Visionoyahweh]

Unless they're already damaged/vulnerable and the cult can then hook them.

Well, yeah, new recruits have to come from somewhere. I just think there's virtually no chance of that happening in this case.

The ATI recruitment stories are interesting, though.

[ElphabaGalinda]

It bothers me that the kid was sent to an ATI family. Not for the kid's sake because I doubt the BS would stick (though it could) but because the ATI family is being presented as a good thing, and exactly what these troubled kids need to get over their problem. I just imagine someone seeing the ATI family and being like hmmm maybe they're onto something, maybe they're what MY troubled kid needs, and then get sucked in.

[demgirl]

Oh gosh, I definitely view it as "reality tv". I assume the kids (who are often 18 or 19 and technically adults) agree to sign up for the free trip abroad. I believe they only stay with the "host family" (which is who the strict parents are) for 3 or 4 days. So while I don't see it as being helpful to the teens, I also don't see it as being any more 'damaging' than being on any other reality show would be.

Ah... that's different then. I guess I wasn't paying enough attention when I watched. I only saw a few episodes and I thought the kids were younger and went off for longer. Or... it's actually totally possible I am thinking of an entirely different show. ;)

[VenusDaisy]

It bothers me that the kid was sent to an ATI family. Not for the kid's sake because I doubt the BS would stick (though it could) but because the ATI family is being presented as a good thing, and exactly what these troubled kids need to get over their problem. I just imagine someone seeing the ATI family and being like hmmm maybe they're onto something, maybe they're what MY troubled kid needs, and then get sucked in.

This!

[johnhugh]

:lol:

The UK show "World's Strictest Parents" just featured an episode where two teens are sent to Fort Rock Family Camp (The same camp where the Duggar boys stayed and Jim Bob got Josiah shot in paintball) to stay with the ATI family that owns the camp.

They literally used the word "defrauding" to talk about how some teen girls dress "these days". :roll:

It was an episode worth watching, in my opinion. Be warned though- the show typically presents the "strict parents" as saviours for these "unruly" teens.

I've not seen that one and I have seen most of them, will have to look out for that.

There was a classic UK one, when the two teens were at an ultra strict family in Africa? and spent the whole time pretending to flirt with each other just to snark their new 'parents' :lol: :lol: :clap: :lol: :lol:

[salsa]

This!

ditto.

And... there is the risk that already-dysfunctional parents will try to apply the principles willy-nilly, which will be even worse. I saw it happen when the "Tough Love" movement was popular in the late 70's and early 80's. Parents didn't get the concept of letting kids live with their own consequences of their actions and interpreted it as carte blanche to be tough on their children and proclaim it as love, with no real new insight.

[Kitten]

This has got to be THE STUPIDEST SHOW EVER. Kids who are "out of control" are sent to families with "strict" parenting. The first day, they rebel, sort of, when they are asked to do something. Then, because the strict parents say "You must do this!" with serious faces, they magically turn into compliant, obedient, cheerful children. They cry, and reveal how much they really want to be "good." At the end of the week, they can't wait to go back home and become model citizens. Yeah, like that's reality. :lol:

What, exactly, would the strict parents do if the kid simply continued to refuse to do the chores or behave the "right" way? Get out the plumbing line? Like they're gonna let that be shown on national TV. Refuse to feed them? If it were one of the "non-compliant" kids I've known, s/he would simply wait until everyone was asleep, and take food. Or, even better, simply refuse to eat for the week. Trust me, the kids I've known would willingly starve for a week rather than give in to authority.

The only "reality" in this show is that a bunch of kids and their families are paid money to pretend they are really horrible, terrible people, and then pretend that someone telling them "This is unacceptable!" creates an epiphany in their souls. Bleah. Watched it once, but never again.

[Renting with Raggles]

The UK version of this is better: the kids get to stay with the 'strict' families longer, they are sent to less developed countries where they can 'experience' poverty and do a little charity work. I saw this episode of the american series - I remember the dad made the kids attend church with them - is that legal in the USA? Also, I remember thinking that the parents looked like first cousins - they had really similar facial features. Their two children were pretty blah and they used crappy arguments 'if you go out partying, you'll try cocaine' or something similar.

In the British version, there was a really great gay couple in New Jersey that were the 'strict' parents and a lesbian couple in South Africa in the 3rd and 4th seasons. They didn't put authoritarian rules on the kids, just talked them through their issues and helped them work it out.

[Bookworm89]

The UK version of this is better: the kids get to stay with the 'strict' families longer, they are sent to less developed countries where they can 'experience' poverty and do a little charity work. I saw this episode of the american series - I remember the dad made the kids attend church with them - is that legal in the USA? Also, I remember thinking that the parents looked like first cousins - they had really similar facial features. Their two children were pretty blah and they used crappy arguments 'if you go out partying, you'll try cocaine' or something similar.

In the British version, there was a really great gay couple in New Jersey that were the 'strict' parents and a lesbian couple in South Africa in the 3rd and 4th seasons. They didn't put authoritarian rules on the kids, just talked them through their issues and helped them work it out.

The British version sounds like something I would actually like to watch.

[Rachel333]

The UK version of this is better: the kids get to stay with the 'strict' families longer, they are sent to less developed countries where they can 'experience' poverty and do a little charity work. I saw this episode of the american series - I remember the dad made the kids attend church with them - is that legal in the USA? Also, I remember thinking that the parents looked like first cousins - they had really similar facial features. Their two children were pretty blah and they used crappy arguments 'if you go out partying, you'll try cocaine' or something similar.

In the British version, there was a really great gay couple in New Jersey that were the 'strict' parents and a lesbian couple in South Africa in the 3rd and 4th seasons. They didn't put authoritarian rules on the kids, just talked them through their issues and helped them work it out.

I loved the one with the gay couple in New Jersey. That was definitely my favorite episode. I think I've only seen the British version of the show.

[Renting with Raggles]

I loved the one with the gay couple in New Jersey. That was definitely my favorite episode. I think I've only seen the British version of the show.

That was the season the UK show really began to change direction. The first seasons were more like the US version: not as extreme, but carried a similar, rather insulting message of "send evil, spoiled, secular children to good, traditional, religious family and watch the miraculous transformation!". After this episode they started using kids who had real, concrete issues behind their behavioural problems. I think the gay couple was the only one to follow up later with the UK girl's family, travelling to Britain to make sure she was OK and got the support she needed. She was self-medicating on a number of drugs, as I recall, because both? one? of her parent/s was/ were terminally ill. That was the episode that convinced me to start watching the show again.

One of the dads had the video up on YouTube and a few other places last year. A lot of people commented on their episode and they were overwhelmingly positive in praise. They really did have superior parenting skills.

[johnhugh]

As the UK version is produced by the BBC, it has to been more liberal than the US or or the Austalian versions I have seen.

The UK version with the gay couple, where they invite the girl to spend extra time, then travel back to Brighton was a nice episode - and notice how well behavied their children where compared to those 19 kids .....

[prayercloseted]

By coincidence, I watched the ATI family episode on YouTube the other day. Double gasp: one of the children sent to the Fort Rock family was Jewish.

Confession: I didn't hate the "strict parents"' approach as much as I thought I would. The dad talked some quiet sense into the boy, without resorting to religious reasoning.

[Sola]

Damn I had no idea this was on. I wonder if it will be repeated this week. Was it on BBC3?

[holierthanyou]

Damn I had no idea this was on. I wonder if it will be repeated this week. Was it on BBC3?

Sola, sorry I am not in the uk so not sure if Canada is showing the same season now as you or not. Here it airs on a cheap satellite channel called twistTV. Could have been an old re-run even.

[fakepigtails73]

This!

This, seconded!

[mockingbird]

This, seconded!

Thirded!

The US version was one of my guilty pleasures when I had surgery a few years ago. I think it plays on CMT and occasionally on MTV. The UK version sounds much better... the US one was definitely trash TV.