The Family - C4 documentary coming soon

[BookLuver]

Hi - I thought you may be interested to know that C4 have a new documentary starting soon about families. One very brave family invites the camera crew in for 24hrs a day for 4 months!!! The write up shows some very interesting facts; particularly that only 39% of people say that life as a parent is better than they thought it would be. However on the upside 98% of teenagers say they love their parents!!!

Check out the link below - it makes some interesting reading.

www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=27281668#post27281668

The link I posted previously was where I first read about the documentary. The best link to go to is the C4 site as there's more info. Here it is:-

www.channel4.com/health/microsites/F/family/the-family/family-survey/picture-gallery2 /page7.html

the 39% stat ( of people who thought life as a parent was better than they thought ) is imho high. People have high expectations don't they when they become parents? So many feel let down or surprised when it is not all rosy ...
It would be interesting to see how many people thought it was worse or harder than they expected. Was this covered in the survey ?

Yes it was - 39% say that life as a parent is better than they thought it would be
35% think being a parent was much as they expected
17% say it's not what they thought it would be
Only 4% say parenthood is worse than they expected

Can't wait to watch this! Will be sky+ ing it

Looking forward to this. Its always great to have apeek into other peoples lives, just to see how you compare

There was one years ago and I can remember it, think they were called Wilkins. Am showing my age now

You're dead right - they were called the Wilkins and it was in the mid 70's!!! In fact Margaret Wilkins who was the mother in the original family died last month at 73. I think she was about 39ish at the time. Apparently, a year after the documentary aired the family split up - after 26 years of marriage - sad eh.

Is anyone tuning into this Wednesday or have you all set the Sky+ ? It should make for a good debate after!!

did anyone spot the article in the Guardian about the mumsnet survey on favourite children ?

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/14/children.family

it reminded me of the surveys done for the Family.

will certainly be watching tonight!

Just read that article on favourite children.

''Justine Roberts, the co-founder of Mumsnet, another parenting website, said that mothers feel so ashamed of having a favourite child that they are often unable to even address the issue in an anonymous online environment.''

Doesn't she just mean that the journalist had made a request for people to 'speak out' about it and everyone said no, that's a silly idea for an article - and she went to netmums instead?

yes that is a surprising comment as I would have thought it was exactly the type of subject that people would post about on forums..I mean it is not that taboo is it?

I meant to consider the ' favourite child' issue when watching the family tonight -4 children , only one boy and much younger, but the first part was totally different to how i expected and i forgot all about it!

Emily the second eldest was a nightmare teen..but in my opinion fairly typical of the type of behaviour teens show.

Would like to know more of the background of the family to put the issues/ behaviour of Emily into context...

Didn't think the supposed 'nightmare teen' was much of a nightmare really- all very typical (losing jobs, wanting to go out all the time, bit grumpy etc) and probably not helped by the way her parents dealt with her...she is 19 and they handled her like a baby.

I was like Emily when I was 15, feel very ashamed of myself and regularly apologise to my mum to this day (20+ years later) for being so vile. Had grown out of it by 19 though, maybe because I'd moved out to university. Don't usually hold with the 'tough love' approach but in some cases perhaps the shock and realisation of moving out and having to look after yourself is a positive thing.

Would there be an optimum age to 'encourage' them to move out? Could I really be that hard on my dcs? Dunno...

That's what going away to uni is for!

Both my husband and I agreed that we were out every night, especially at first, but that as we were not at home, it didn't ruin family life.

Uni's not for everyone though. I would like dcs to go but won't be heartbroken if they choose a different path. In which case when 'should' they move out. DH didn't leave his parents til he moved in with me ...

Yes, and I agree it's not worth going unless you are going to get a worthwhile qualification. Dunno what you do if they don't want to move out, I guess you have to have some ground rules and if they don't follow them.....

It wasn't quite what I expected to be honest and I very nearly switched it off. However it did get a lot better as the show went on. I thought Emily was probably alot like other teenagers (I know when I was about 15 I was horrible) but her parents seemed to let her away with it. My mum would never have let me go out at night if I hadn't been to school or work - no matter what age I was. Her favourite saying was "While you live under my roof, you'll abide by my rules!!"