Hotel of Mum and Dad

Episode one
Sam and Lara live at Sam’s nan’s house and blow their salaries on clothes and nights out. Jack and Jaseleigh make the most of having a kid by using Jase’s parents for accommodation and babysitting. This cosseted treatment has left all concerned clueless about budgeting, shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc, but they’ll have to grow up fast when they’re given their weekly earnings and sent to live in a flat on their own – for all of a week.

While the intentions of ‘Hotel of Mum and Dad’ – demonstrate the importance of self-sufficiency and compromise in achieving genuine independence – may be sound, the format is stifling. Such extreme cases of indolence/ignorance will have little bearing on the many young lives genuinely crippled by debt, high rents or joblessness, while narrative requirements here of course dictate happy endings all round. Still, maybe things will improve next week. ‘My financial focus is having massive jugs’, you say? Maybe not, then.