[brianpgordon]

I'd think that kids crushed by responsibility and strict discipline from an early age would be more likely than normal kids to ultimately flame out or have a breakdown. Everyone has to find their own meaning in life and make peace with it. Kids that are railed along by uber-strict parents can have a really hard time when that constant driving pressure is removed.

And I agree that it's probably not very useful to have to do loads of chores as a kid and do menial labor (the only kind available as a teenager) to get through college. The kids who had the parental support to have time to read books and tinker with computers and electronics and such, and focus on school, will ultimately be better off I think. If this guy is so well-off that he's having 12 kids and buying cars for them and flying them all over the world, I'm sure he can afford to have a cleaning service come in once a week. His "tough love" approach just makes him seem like kind of an asshole. I'd be very curious to hear what his kids think about it. I've known a couple of people who had a similar upbringing and there's a lot of left-over resentment there.