Escape to the Wild

I think they are completely barking. All that tropical, sweaty heat, the insects, the dangers. Why would you want to put your family at risk of possible attack, illness, accident.... I can't understand it at all. Now, if it were a lovely beach house on a South Sea island, I might consider it.

I watch it wondering what they will do when they get ill or old. What if one of them is injured?

They all say that they couldn't stand the rat-race, or the hypocrisy. Had they tried moving to where the pace of life was slower and less dog-eat-dog? Or working at some job that didn't need them to be competitive and deceitful, where they didn't need to keep up with the Joneses?

Aren't their kids going to get mightily fed up when they're a bit older?

I watched it with a sense of incredulity, who on earth would take off to the fifth most violent country in the world when there must be umpteen other similar places if you're seeking isolation and jungle life?

I felt very uneasy about this episode especially when they said they had virtually no money as backup and the dangers from gun-toting marauders. It does seem irresponsible to say the least, and I'd love to know what the real reason was for moving, they completely evaded the question.

I'm really enjoying the programmes, very enlightening

I've also enjoyed both the programmes. It would be interesting to have follow-ups in 2 or 3 years time, as their respective children grow-up. The eldest boy in the first programme has already left their 'Paradise' for boarding school in New Zealand.
It is my idea of a nightmare!

The programmes are interesting, but to me, bewildering. I could not live that kind of life. Although much is made of their 'isolation' they seem to have wi-fi and other trappings of civilisation.

The camera crew must drive or be helicoptered in. In the last programme Kevin walked through jungle at night,for an hour ( for programme effect). Later the chap drove his children to school in the truck and the older boy made his own way to secondary school. How isolated were they?

Like others I wonder how the children will fare in later years. x

In the episode I saw, set on a Pacific island, the eldest child had already been sent to a boarding school in New Zealand, which indicates that the family must have had a reserve of cash.

I think they've all got pots of money stashed away somewhere so they can get out when they want. They are all nutters of course and it's the children I feel sorry for. They will have no social skills at all. Episode 1 the eldest child had taken the decision to get out I think the others will follow. Of course the lot in Episode 2 may be caught by the volcano before then!

The most scary thing in episode 2 wasn't the volcano, it was the father.

I agree Elegran
He did seem rather odd to say the least, I thought he seemed a bit shift/dodgy personally. I'm sure there's something in the background, so much didn't make sense especially about not having any money and although presumably they'd invited the camera crew out there, they disappeared for a whole morning leaving Kevin McCloud in limbo

I watched the first programme and was intrigued. I can see how parents get caught up in the idea of living a simple. idyllic sort of life and bringing their children up in innocence for as long as possible.

My 3 sons all loved walking in the countryside, playing on the beach etc., until they reached about 12. I can remember my youngest on a trip to a nearby city, standing on a bridge near a park which he had once loved, and saying :

"Boring, boring, just a little bit dull.
Boring, boring I'd rather watch paint dry on a wall.

We knew at that moment that our last child was growing up - sad but true and inevitable.