Channel 4 had social media ablaze within the first five minutes of its documentary Feral Families beginning tonight.
As if the name of the film wasn’t needling enough, it featured an eight-year-old girl shaving her own hair, and a babe in arms grabbing a bloody great kitchen knife, after the opening titles had barely finished rolling.
The programme followed several families who aren’t actually so much feral in the literal sense – why let fact get in the way of Twitter-friendly alliteration, though? – but who have chosen to live outside the rules of standard social convention.
So, this meant not sending the kids to school; not setting bedtimes; allowing toddlers to throw water on the floor without reprimand – they are only “experimenting”, after all, as one mum featured argued.
Of course, viewers were swiftly up in arms after witnessing the most ‘outrageous’ behaviour early on – the aforementioned head-shaving and knife-wielding – and tripped over their typing fingers to condemn the parents.
#FeralFamilies ♀ pic.twitter.com/yxfoE9BD44
— Michelle Shaw (@Shellyd2k) 26 October 2017
One family included in the show was the Rawnsleys – mum Gemma, 34, dad Lewis, 31 – and their seven kids: Skye, 13; Finlay, 12; Phoenix, nine; Pearl, eight; Hunter, five; Zephyr, three; and one-year-old Wolf.
After showing Pearl shaving her head, the film then moved on to Finlay, who had decided to ‘rebel’ against his family’s no-rule lifestyle – by asking to go to school for a three-day trial!
“I think I’d really enjoy it, because of all the friends there and all the schoolwork as well. I actually enjoy school work, I like it,” he explained.
“When I do schoolwork I feel proud of myself afterwards, like I’ve achieved something.
“I think rules are important.”
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Finn became the hero of the piece for many viewers, who decided he perfectly demonstrated that this alternative parenting was a bad idea…
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But there was a last-minute twist… Finlay decided that he didn’t want to go to school after all.
“Some of the learning was pointless, it was just repetitive and I had to do it every day,” he admitted.
“Sometimes you need to take a break, and you can’t take a break.”
Asked what he now wanted for his own future, Finn said: “I want to live a happy life and be free.”
His proud mum was defiant about their lifestyle and asked other conventional parents to think about their choices.
“They are just doing what their parents did,” she argued.
“I would encourage people to think: ‘What do I actually want to do for my family?'”