TLC's Newest Show

We went to Morse Beach, and since living in North Central Indiana doesn't consist of natural lakes, all we have to visit are posh, man-made ones.

We waited 30 minutes before we got our recliners and as we rested up and opened our books, a mom with her hair piled on top of her head was screaming at her child who was walking away in someone else's flip flops. She yelled at her daughter again, and it must've been just one of those days.

The family's were a bit odd, too. All the dad's were skinny men with nipple piercings and tattoos. They tended kindly to their kids, actually. No stereotypes here.

But one family caught my eye, and since Steph's a therapist (who specializes in families and children), I thought of a great TV idea for TLC.

Here's the premise: We would go out in public and find families, mainly parents, that are horrendous: loud, mean, nasty with their children. With our camera crew we'd bombard them and tell them that they need parenting help.

"Hello, we've realized how you make an awful parent. We think you should meet our resident therapist to show you some parenting skills."

After they kick and scream and then, finally, comply, Steph would introduce herself and give her no-nonsense approach to working with kids and how to become a better enforcer of rules, a family that plays and a family that's constantly evolving in a creative way.

The camera will record their so-many-day-long journey. They'll have video diaries they'll sob at, first defying all the advice saying "this is how I was raised, and I came out just fine, dammit! You can take your %#@! advice and shove it!" punching the camera over. Then, they'll actually find the advice helpful, and they'll cry into the camera with honesty and love saying, "I must've been raised a rough way, but I know I can do better..."

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