I watched the video link about this show (Mormon couple took in two troubled British teens) and I wanted to comment (but the board was down - sob, sob).

So, my impressions.

1) Mom's comment that she homeschools so her children won't be "confused" by which "right" is correct was a gagger. Of course I, as a fanatical Christian, specifically chose public schools for my children because I felt it was unfair to raist them in a vacuum of public opinion.

2) I was deeply impressed by Mom's patience and consistency with the teens. It was something they needed and clearly had a positive impact on them.

3) There was a comment by the Mom, when the boy was having a bit of a meltdown before a fancy charity ball where she said "I want to be proud of you..." that I disagreed with. I thought she should have said, "I want to show my friends this young man I'm so proud of..." -- I kind of suspected that's what she meant, though, and it was a rather emotional moment so I give her a pass on that one. Besides, no-one is perfect all the time. :)

4) Expecting the kids to cold-turkey a smoking habit was ridiculous, but I rather suspect the kids smoked anyway.

5) All in all, though, I was impressed with the parenting skills of that couple.

So, did anyone else watch it?

I found the ability of the Mom to reach the two teens commendable. She stayed firm, calm, and patient, as well as the father.

I was amazed at how a week or so in a very different environment made a change in these teenagers attitude and behavior. They learned quickly that their acting out was not acceptable and they needed to behave differently. Have no idea if it continued after they went home, but it was impressive.

I don't know LDS folks like this family when I was an active member, but we didn't live in a farming/ranching area either.
Nobody I knew home schooled either in those days. Their dynamics in their home was very little like ours when we were raising our kids. We were much more liberal in some ways.

All in all I enjoyed the series. I have seen other ones.

I watched it (the family with the four kids, two of whom were in choirs) and I agree, while the parenting had a distinctive Utahn mark, they were patient and did a good job with them. The teens came back better off for the experience.

There was a second Mormon family on the show with ten kids who made all the kids work in the family business (janitorial service) and those parents were nuts.

I did not see that one, if you have a link offhand, I'd LOVE to see it!

Google "World's Strictest Parents". You can view most of the complete episodes from that website.

I watched it and loved it, then ended up watching the whole series (or all of the episodes posted to youtube). I was also surprised about the expectation for the kids to quit cold turkey. All of the teens in all of the episodes smoked and had the same rules. The producers should have advised them all to pack some nicorette.

I was also surprised that there were no missionary moments, I suspect that's more to do with the producers rules than the parent's sense of decorum.

It was a touching show, all the episodes were touching.

They probably knew they would not be able to smoke, (just my guess) because what I saw was an huge amount of smoking before they arrived.

What we don't know is exactly what these teenagers were told and what the contract said that they and their parents signed to be part of the show.

The closest they came to a missionary moment was when the twelve year old daughter explained the concept of modest clothing. It sounded as if she was quoting verbatim from the YW Manual, and most likely she was.