For eleven years, Trent and Amber Johnston ran the tightest ship on reality TV. Rules, routines, and a dinner table where everybody answered for themselves. Now look at them. The strictest parents on TLC have gone soft — and fans cannot decide whether that is the sweetest plot twist in 7 Little Johnstons history or a takeover in progress.
The reason is sitting in the middle of the family photo: Liz Johnston and Brice Bolden are now a family of four. Their daughter Leighton was born in November 2023, and their son Coleman Brice Johnston Bolden arrived on September 8, 2026. Liz announced it herself on Instagram: “Our family is complete, with this happy handsome bundle of joy.” The couple told TODAY they were “so happy to have Coleman here and to be home together as a family of four.”
That makes Trent and Amber grandparents twice over — Lolli and Boppa, as the family calls them. As Season 18 counts down to its November 17 premiere, the grandparent era is quietly becoming the show’s most debated storyline: are Lolli and Boppa the best grandparents on television, or a little too involved?
From Strict Parents to Soft Grandparents
Longtime viewers know the whiplash. Trent and Amber built the show on structure — bedtimes, chores, curfews, and very public lectures when a kid stepped out of line. Grandparenting plays by different rules. The couple were front and center at Liz and Brice’s wedding at the family home in Forsyth, Georgia, on November 8, 2025, and have publicly celebrated every milestone since. According to reports, Amber even drove Liz and Brice to the hospital for Coleman’s scheduled delivery.
The Family of Four Changes Everything
Here is the part that matters for Season 18. The show films behind real life, so the season premiering November 17 follows Liz’s second pregnancy — the journey to Coleman — even though Coleman is already here in real life. Viewers will watch Liz and Brice learn whether their baby will be a little person or average height, and watch the whole family count down to the newest Johnston.
That storyline reframes the family. Liz and Brice, together since 2019, married, and now parents of two, are no longer the show’s “young couple.” They are the next generation, raising Leighton and Coleman while Trent and Amber step into a new role: the backup, the babysitters, the safety net.
YOU MAY LIKEEverything We Know About 7 Little Johnstons Season 18 — Wedding Bells, New Homes, and One Big Question MarkBest Grandparents on TV — or Too Involved?
Team Best Grandparents has a strong case. Presence: Trent and Amber show up — weddings, births, birthdays — in a way plenty of reality-TV grandparents do not. Warmth: the clips fans share most are not the lectures, they are the quiet moments, a grandparent holding a grandchild while the chaos of the house goes on around them. And payoff: fans who watched the couple raise five kids, including adopted children Anna, Alex, and Emma, say the grandparent era feels earned.
But Team Too Involved is not quiet either. The Johnstons have always been a family where everybody lives in everybody else’s business — half the show’s appeal and half its tension. Critics ask where the line is: when does proud grandparenting become hovering? When does “we are just helping” start to crowd out Liz and Brice as parents in their own home? The show’s own history gives the question weight: closeness in this family has a sharp edge, and Anna, who left the show ahead of Season 17 and will not appear in Season 18 according to reports, is the reminder.
What is not in dispute: nobody is neutral about Lolli and Boppa. So here is the vote Season 18 will settle: are Trent and Amber the best grandparents on reality TV, full stop? Or is it time for them to let Liz and Brice run their own house, grandkids and all? Pick a side — and defend it in the comments.
