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Original poster

New Brat Camp Tonight

162 replies

happymerryberries · 01/02/2005 16:44

I know this is the sort of TV I hate myself for watching, but I know I will be there at 9 tonight on C4.

One of the brats is a girl who announced to her mother's coffee circle that she had just had sex in a telephone box! OMG!!!!

OP posts:
Original poster
happymerryberries · 02/02/2005 06:36

I thought that Jenny was a very calculating little madam. You could almost see her thinking. 'That one didn't work, I'll try being sweet and good now'. And having being foul mouthed, drunken , abusive horrors they think 'That if mum realy loves me she will get me out'. Yeh right!

Loved the guy who said, You keep saying this isn't fair, so?

I say that to the teenagers I teach all the time!

OP posts:
Metrobaby · 02/02/2005 08:31

I loved this as well ! The kids have no respect for their parents or anyone it seems.

I had a nose on the website and apparently its $329 A DAY to send your child there and they expect them to be there for 90 days !! How many people can afford that??

tarantula · 02/02/2005 09:06

Well I think the parent of the girl (Xanthe? I think) who gives her daughter £150 a fortnight pocket money can def afford it. Dp and I nearly choked thats our housekeeping for 3 weeks!!!!for the 3 of us. Its no wonder they have no appreciation of anything.

motherinferior · 02/02/2005 09:08

They are quite compellingly horrible, aren't they.

lou33 · 02/02/2005 09:10

how old are they all, i missed that bit?

Fennel · 02/02/2005 09:10

I think the parents should have to go to parent camp before sending even horrible kids to such an awful place. they should take some responsibility for their lack of parenting skills

motherinferior · 02/02/2005 09:12

I do agree, Fennel. Saying 'she's totally out of control' is all very well but, ahem, what about boundaries AT home?

Metrobaby · 02/02/2005 09:13

They are all in their teens. I think the youngest is 15.

Some of the tears and trantrums were strangely akin I thought to toddler behaviour

Metrobaby · 02/02/2005 09:14

Fennel - apparently in this series the parents are going to the camp as well to learn about some parenting skills. Now that should be an interesting episode

Fennel · 02/02/2005 09:14

tho without being a parent of a teenager yet, perhaps I should be slower to criticise....

surely OUR children could never be that bad???

lou33 · 02/02/2005 09:18

I don't think it's necessarily about how parents bring up their kids at that age though, they probably tried their best, and are at their wits end now. So many other outside influences to be swayed by as they get older. Dd1 has v strict boundaries, but still told me to shut up and called me a bitch last night, as well as hitting her 6 yr old brother. She's almost 13.

RTKangaMummy · 02/02/2005 09:19

IIRC they are 15, 16 or 17

the age for smoking was deffo older than they were

Fennel · 02/02/2005 09:22

but what did you do then Lou33? give her more pocket money?

Fennel · 02/02/2005 09:23

i can see they are at their wits end but have these families tried something a bit less brutal? family therapy for instance?

actually I would probably have liked camping with no frills in the Utah mountains as a teenager... brings back those days at guide camp.

lou33 · 02/02/2005 09:23

i chained her to the radiator where she still is

she got a huge bollocking actually and forced to bed

woodpops · 02/02/2005 09:24

Having watchewd this I'm getting worried about ds and dd growing up. All the parents seemed to have done the best for their kids. I know I'll be crying when the kids and parents are reunited!!!!

lou33 · 02/02/2005 09:25

therapy and counselling doesn't always work. They probably know they shouldn't behave like they do but they do it anyway, and the parents are probably now losing the will to live, which the teen can take advantage of. Dh is much softer on dd than i am, we are like good cop bad cop.

Beatie · 02/02/2005 09:28

Quote: "IMHO - the problem lies in parents saying YES way too many times."

Oh Alux - I do hope so. This programme is compelling but scares me to death even though I only have a 2yo dd. I was born in the 70s and me and my brother would never have dared speak to our parents like that. Is there something is current cultrue and media that helps breed teenagers to be more bratty and disrespectful to the extreme or is it wooly parenting?

I too think it is interesting that these kids mostly come from nice large homes in leafy suburbs - with 2 working parents. We have this image of unruly teenagers all coming from broken homes on dodgy estates.

But how much are these teenagers playing up tot he camera? How long do you really think the girls would continue to act like brats if their parents threw them out and showed a bit of tough love?

lou33 · 02/02/2005 09:30

i wondered if they were angry at the parents? Maybe felt not important enough, not enough time spent with them etc, it's v hard to judge. Maybe they resent the fact they had money and not time, who knows?

Beatie · 02/02/2005 09:30

Oh yes - I too agree that we should have programme slike this in the UK. In Ireland kids can take (or are coerced to take)a transitional year between their Junior Certificate and their Senior Certificate. So, at the age of 14 they don't do anything academic for a year but take part in outward bounds courses and community projects. Do you think teenagers here would benefit from learning about life outside the family and school system a little bit more?

Fennel · 02/02/2005 09:33

those brat camps really worry me, it does seem a violition of even horrible teenagers' human rights to be basically locked up until you agree with everything you are told to think before you are let out.

perhaps in 10 years time I will be on here cheering the boot camp guards every step of the way....

lou33 · 02/02/2005 09:33

i think we should send them all back down the mines and up chimneys again

lou33 · 02/02/2005 09:34

i can see the advantage of them fennel, now my oldest is hurtling into kevin and perry land

kernowcat · 02/02/2005 09:58

The mum called Lisa was the first naked women my DP saw! (He was 10yrs and she was about 15yrs. The daughter of his Dads' girlfriend. How wierd was that when your watching TV!!!!!!!!)
PS I love to see them suffer and have told ours there all off there at sixteen!!!!!!!

woodpops · 02/02/2005 10:08

I would have been interested to see if this works in the long run. It would have been good to revisit the kids from the 1st brat camp.