The Collegian

Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: News

Freshman Calvin Stockdale watches himself and his family on TV with a large group of students in Galloway Hall Wednesday night. His mother switched roles with another woman for 10 days on the?ABC?network show "Wife Swap."?{Sean McDermott/Collegian}

Last night dozens of students clustered in Galloway Hall's lobby to see freshman Calvin Stockdale's family on TV, serving as guests on ABC network's "Wife Swap" show.

The episode, filmed last summer, featured Calvin's mother Kathy Stockdale living with a family in a Chicago suburb for a 10-day period, while that family's mother lived with the Stockdales at their Ohio farm.

"I thought the place was just falling apart," Kathy said of the Chicago family's house. "They had no structure in their lives. I tried to bring structure."

The Chicago family, the Tonkovics, have a 21-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter. The son's girlfriend and the daughter's boyfriend also live in their house.

The parents support all four children financially, since none hold jobs. They spend a great deal of their time watching television and playing video games, as evidenced in the show.

Meanwhile, Laurie Tonkovic lived with Calvin, his father and his three younger brothers.

Kathy homeschools the three younger boys, who also operate on a daily schedule of farm chores and household cleaning.

"We don't have a TV," Calvin said.

Calvin said his family encouraged its substitute mother to help them butcher chickens.

"She really flipped her can on that one,"?he said. "She wouldn't even come outside."

He said they didn't know the show existed before the network called and asked them to appear on it.

He said the network knew they wanted a family bluegrass band to appear on the show. They eventually found the Web site of the Stockdale Family Band, in which Calvin plays banjo and sings.

He said his family accepted the offer because they knew it would generate exposure for the band and would give them a chance to "demonstrate [their] values" to a large audience.

Though Kathy faced the greatest challenge, as it required her to leave her family for two weeks, she said she made friends with some members of the other family.

She said they also learned to live by some of her values, at least temporarily: harvesting their own food, eating and sleeping on a fixed schedule, avoiding profanity.

Still, she said she'd rather not repeat the experience.

"Would I go through junior high again? Would I go through childbirth again?" she said. "I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do, and I don't really need to repeat the Wife Swap experience."

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