User Reviews

I randomly came across an episode of World's Strictest Parents on YouTube. I think it was the Aussie version, because Australian teenagers went to go live with a family in Ireland. I didn't know the original was British. Nonetheless, it's all the same: two unruly teenagers - one a boy, the other a girl - are sent to live with a couple who has kids for a week, and are labeled as strict, because their parents are at their wit's end and don't know what else to do. Back when I had cable, I would watch this on MTV. I was also a teen at the time. It never once crossed my mind that the title was an exaggeration. I guess because, I wasn't thinking logically, and that was just due to the stage of life I was in. Everything about this show is over the top. It's safe to say many of us gave our parents a hard time when we were teenagers, but these kids have zero concept of respect or boundaries. They abuse substances, have no curfew, use profanity whenever they're requested to do something as simple as wash the dishes. Some dropped out of school. Many of them don't have a relationship with their father. They never talked about saving their money to move out, so it was like they planned on sleeping late Monday through Friday and partying with their friends every weekend, while living under their parent's roof for the rest of their life. To correct their disrespectful behavior, they're sent to live with a family who implements structure within their home. The parents really aren't strict, in the true sense of the word. They just have rules and expectations. Making your bed after you get up in the morning, completing homework by a certain time, and chores/lending a hand around the house, like doing laundry and helping with dinner. That's not difficult to follow. But, some teens are headstrong, more than others, so they protest, disrupt the system. Hide cigarettes and/or bottles of liquor. And then start an argument when it's found. I can't imagine how stressed out the "strict" parents felt, having juvenile delinquents under their roof, when their biological kids are so well-behaved. It amazed me how they walked around drinking rum or tequila like it's water. I'm 30 and I don't even drink like that.

I have a different perspective of this show now that I'm an adult, and to be honest, it's no longer my favorite. Yes, it's a concept that makes for entertaining television, but just like most reality programs, it's actually quite stupid. I tried to binge this, but after two or three episodes, I found myself bored from the repetition, and quite annoyed from witnessing so much dysfunction. It gets tiring listening to kids tell adults to shut up, f off, mind their business, etc. I personally never understood why some people live with their child causing turmoil in the house. Going to stay with strangers wasn't a solution. Work should've been done to straighten them out that didn't involve other people, unless they were professionals. Otherwise, it's no one else's responsibility to teach your son or daughter life skills. I'm all for helping wayward teens, but there's no way I would let them stay in my home. If you curse and scream at your own parents, why would I want you in my living space? And every time they stay with the family they're not related to, they leave completely transformed, which makes me wonder if this show was staged. Only until they read a letter from their parents while they're staying with the "strict" family do they realize how narcissistic and horrible they've been acting, and they make a promise to change. Every single episode follows that pattern. It comes off as fake. Also, at the beginning, I got the impression that the parent and teen do a reenactment of their arguments. I do think a few of them were documented in real time, but many of their fights look like performances from incredibly amateurish actors.

This was the only halfway decent thing on MTV at the time, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really teach anything. It's hard to believe this is what goes on (or went on) in the average American household, which makes me skeptical of whether or not it was real, besides the other reasons I mentioned above. I don't know anyone who talked to their parents like these kids, and if they did, they don't have teeth in their mouth. I know conflicts got settled, but it shouldn't have taken teenagers living with people who aren't even their family for them to acknowledge they need to be compliant when they're asked to do chores, and to stop having an attitude in general. This show offers no purpose. All it does is communicate messages to the audience that are self-explanatory. I stopped watching because it wasn't doing anything for my personal growth. There was nothing enriching or interesting. I can find other things to do with my time. Give it a try if you want, but expect it to get boring after a few episodes.

It should go without saying that the title of this risky but enlightening reality show is a huge overstatement when you actually watch the show. I learned from Wikipedia that this show, like many other successful reality TV programs in the U.S., originated in the United Kingdom not too long ago. I've only seen the episodes aired on MTV (also shown on MTV's sister station, CMT). Judging from what episodes I've seen, I wonder how MTV as a whole defines the word "strict", and what kind of parenting would be considered reasonable according to their standards.

Truth be told, it's a great premise for a show, and there has not been one episode I've seen that has made me want to stop watching. In the show, there are two teenagers (usually no older than 18) who are deemed unruly by the producers, and therefore by the audience. These teens (different ones every week) are not unruly to the point of juvenile delinquency where they need to be sent to an institution, but they are almost always from a city (mostly Los Angeles, apparently the jaded teenager capital of the world, which it just may be), and come across as uncontrollable. They display the bad kind of independence consisting of drinking to excess frequently, smoking, or both, and sassiness to match. In other words, they have attitudes that may welcome them into Paris Hilton's circle of friends easily, but not into the real world.

The show doesn't usually bother to explain how they got this way, or place much blame on their parents for that matter. Still, they get sent to another set of parents, usually in a rural area, who are strict apparently because they establish an acceptable code of conduct for their children and guests, assign chores, and actually (gasp!) punish them for disobeying the rules or talking back. The teenagers given this special assignment from the show stay with this family for just seven days.

Now, I don't know if the teens themselves actually audition for this show, or if their parents sign them up for it. I also don't know at what point these teens know what they're in for. Regardless, it is nice to see these teens clean up their attitude in the course of the week. Most of the teens have messy encounters with the parents within the first day. It seems as though TV in general thrives on Reality TV meltdowns, but these fights are the same kind you feel when you're a guest at a regular person's house and a loud argument between a parent and a child ensues. You feel a different kind of thick tension that you don't feel when Flavor Flav's skanky girlfriends get into cat fights. It's incredibly uncomfortable.

However, from those tense moments come some poignant moments resulting from reconciliation, depending on whether or not the teen leaves the show (which has happened only once according to my count). When the teen makes a connection with the temporarily adoptive parent, the resolution seems far less scripted than other reality shows. It's unlikely that a spoiled teen would change his or her ways in just one week. After all, it takes Army recruits six weeks to change their attitudes in basic training.

With that said, I found myself, upon watching this show for the first time, thinking I was going to watch the show and say, "Wow, these parents are really strict", but instead saying, "Wow, what's wrong with these teenagers?". The parents on this show, for the most part, do what every parent should be doing: showing their kids enough discipline so that they enter the real world without the notion that success will be handed to them. It's a lesson every kid should learn, and actually enforcing such rules does not make a parent a strict parent; it makes them a good parent. Strict is not necessarily a good thing, either. Their are strict parents who are bad parents, too. Similarly, not every spoiled, cynical child comes from Los Angeles either. It's sort of sad that MTV (or CMT) doesn't seem to grasp that fact judging from this TV show. However, if a show that is simultaneously entertaining and educational can hammer home to a younger audience what good parenting and acceptable social behavior should be, then this show has served a purpose extending beyond ad revenue.