A LIFE swap TV programme between teenagers from rural Monmouthshire and the Valleys, is changing lives, one of their parents says.

Life Swap, which airs at 7.30pm on Friday on BBC One Wales, aims to provide a fresh insight into the lives of Welsh teenagers and the challenges parents face when raising them.

Brought up in different settings, the Beynon children – Amy, 19, Connor 18, Rhys, 15, Katie, 8, and Davie, 6 – live in a terraced house with their strict parents, Ivor, 46, and Joanna, 37, in Abertillery.

On a Llanvetherine farm, however, the Crabtree girls, Megan, 17, and Bronwyn, 15, have a free rein under parents Neil, 53, and Vicky, 51, and attend barn dances and Young Farmers’ socials.

Ivor Beynon, father of the Abertillery teenagers, said that everyone involved had a positive experience and that both families have remained in touch.

He said: “Teenagers are teenagers and we saw their motivations in a positive way. We once survived what they are going through and they'll survive it too.

“As parents, we’ve chilled out a bit more. We’ve been down on Amy, Connor, and Rhys because we don’t know what they are going to meet when they leave the front door. We now know that they are well-adjusted for adulthood.”

Ahead of the swap, both families were sent a DVD of a day’s recording of life in each household.

However, despite being just a 20 minute drive away, the Beynon teenagers were immediately immersed in a way of life they had never experienced before.

Mr Beynon, who grew up on a farm until the age of nine, said: “They found the rural activities a bit challenging. Amy doesn’t like getting her hands dirty and farming would be her worst nightmare.

“They were quite independent and stayed in a caravan. It was strange for them to have such a relaxed atmosphere but Amy became Amy (more herself), Connor seems more happy and outgoing, and it sparked Rhys’ interest in becoming a chef.”

While the experience was initially disconcerting for the Beynon teenagers, the Crabtree girls immediately took to life in Abertillery.

With opportunity to bond with Katie, 8, and Davie, 6, the Beynon sisters thrived “as a unit” and were heavily involved in the family’s street pastoring work.