The Mills Family Seemingly Disappeared From 'The Parent Test' Finale — Here's What Happened

ABC's reality series The Parent Test sees families competing against one another to determine which types of parenting are the most effective. The series has gained a decent following over the course of its first season, but the finale featured a bit of a head-scratcher.

The Mills family, who had made the season finale, disappeared from the show altogether, leading some to wonder where they went. Here's what we know.

The Mills family popped back up in a lengthy Instagram Live to provide some insight into what happened on the finale of The Parent Test. Despite making it to the top three, with the McCoy family taking home the win, the eternally happy Mills fam was not on the finale. "So, you guys may have seen that we were not on the show for the final episode, and we are gonna address that," teased mom Rachel.

Although the Instagram Live happened to specifically address why the Mills family didn't end up going to Disneyland for the finale, we didn't get our answer for a full 25 minutes. It was maddening. One person even commented, "What's the cliff notes answer of why they missed it?" Abe finally answered our confused prayers. "Once we made the finale they [ABC] went through saying 'Hey, we're gonna do a big finale here. There's gonna be challenges. We're gonna need your kids to fly out."

They were, of course, being flown to California but the kids ended up flying separately from Abe and Rachel who were already there. Naturally, the first thing everyone had to do was take a COVID-19 test. "The next morning, they came and did the test for COVID," explained Abe. The children were actually staying in a different hotel, which was ultimately helpful because everyone was cleared except for Jordan, who tested positive for COVID-19. "I was never really good at tests," he joked.

Ultimately the Mills family decided to skip the finale in order to be with Jordan. Strangely, Rachel said "He wasn't sick," by which she probably meant he was asymptomatic. The family then remained in the hotel for another five days. The good news is, the show did send them to Disney World in December 2022.

Now that we know why the Mills family had to skip the finale of The Parent Test, let's get to know them a little better. It takes a certain kind of person to want to wade into the often fraught waters of reality television. It turns out the Mills are kind of special Abe and Rachel are from Florida, and are the parents to six children, all of whom are athletic.

Their YouTube channel Sunshine Mafia started out as a musical group, as all six children sing and play musical instruments.

Now that their YouTube channel has amassed 700,000 subscribers, the family also get recognized regularly.

"It happens everywhere we go," Abe said told a local news outlet called the Observer. "In Hawaii, we were kayaking down the river and there were some kids that were going to jump off the bridge into the river, and they were like, 'Hey, spread sunshine.'" Will the Mills family be sharing their joyous outlook in a second season? As of the time of this writing the show has yet to be renewed but we'll be on the lookout for more information.