I watch the show on occasion with my daughters. Gosh, I'm almost afraid to admit that....
As far as their show goes, it's just TV. I doubt it is anything like their real lives outside the camera. It is a show produced from many hours of tape to be what the producers want the viewers to see and think. That to me is hardly reality. Do people really take it that seriously?
As far as the family goes, honestly, I think what people see in it is the dialogue between them all is common dialogue between many families (or maybe more so siblings) on some level, only ordinary families wouldn't talk to eachother that way in public much less on TV. So it has the OMG I can't believe they talk to eachother like that shock factor, even though many siblings and friends and some parents do actually have similar dialogue, they'd never admit to. I have heard it with my own girls, and I have heard it between close groups of friends. Sometimes it seems vulgar, incredibly insensitive, borderline hateful, but they actually have very close relationships and it's a dialogue only "they" really understand and to the outside world seems shocking.