Bringing Up Bates Stars: We Want Our Show to Illustrate How Important God, Family Are

Growing up as one of 19 children and having your daily activities filmed for a television program isn’t the typical American life. 

But for Erin (Bates) Paine and Carlin (Bates) Stewart, it was a weekly reality filled with blessings, life lessons and, of course, a few trials.

UP Television’s Bringing Up Bates began broadcasting in 2014. At the time Erin had been married one year and Carlin was 16. 

The series’ eighth season premiered this year.

Although both women are married – and simultaneously pregnant – they still appear on the program. 

Bringing Up Bates differs from more mainstream reality programs that spotlight friction, fighting and backstabbing. Instead, Bringing Up Bates follows the lives of parents Gil and Kelly Jo Bates, their 19 children, their sons- and daughters-in-law and 11 grandchildren. The family is Christian. 

Carlin said she hopes viewers see the blessings of a big family on screen.

“One of the goals we all had on filming was to show how important family is,” Carlin told Christian Headlines. “We have never pretended to be a perfect family or one that has it all together. We have struggles and arguments and heartbreaks, like anyone else. But my parents tried to instill that we would get through life as a team and with God’s help. They tried to make every moment count, and I think that’s the…