Community & Business
7 June, 2023
‘Outback parenting’ showcased on national TV by local family
GROWING up on a property on the outskirts of Mareeba, Tency and David bring up their three children with a focus on respect, good manners, risk-taking, and strict consequences, and their parenting style will be in the national spotlight this week.
The “outback” family, whose surname cannot be published, will be featured on the second season of Channel Nine’s “Parental Guidance” in which 12 parents with very different parenting styles will be showcased, highlighting modern-day issues facing parents across the nation.
For Tency and David, their parenting approach allows their boys to participate in activities such as shooting guns, riding horses and dirt bikes, and exploring unsupervised, where they learn important lessons through first-hand experiences.
This season will shine a special light on raising children in the digital age, delving into pressing topics such as the rise of influencer parenting and shedding light on the negative aspects of online gaming and the internet.
It will also extensively explore the essen-tials of parenting, ranging from effectively managing tantrums and sibling rivalries to addressing bullying, discussing health edu-cation and nurturing a drive for success in children.
Tency said participating in the show had opened their eyes to the realities their children, Vance (aged 10), Wyatt (9), and Clancy (7), face as they are growing up.
“They put you through challenges and everyone learns a lot and gets to see the different ways people parent their children,” Tency said.
“I think I have learned a lot and our parenting style really shows that we teach our children respect and set boundaries but we also give them a lot of love.
“We discovered things about our children that we might not have if we weren't in those situations.”
For David, he learned their parenting style may be perceived as “too strict,” but he found that all parenting styles were similar, just ex-ecuted differently.
“I guess I learned that maybe, sometimes, I might be a little too strict with my parent-ing but overall, I found that a lot of the styles were similar, just with slight variations in execution,” he said.
“I think it was a great experience and we got to see how our kids would react in different situations, which we probably wouldn't have seen before.”
The first episode aired on Monday, with episodes able to be streamed on 9Now and Channel Nine.
