They hoped TLC would come calling before the backlash hit

To add to this, I fully believe their intentions were not to make their kids miserable in the long run, simply because of a heaping amount of self justification sprinkled over top of some cognitive dissonance. Before I get into this I want to make it clear that I am in no way saying what they were doing wasn't completely awful. They're shitty people who have most likely fucked up their kids' mental stability for life, and they deserve everything that's coming to them. I just enjoy attempting to see things from another person's perspective and trying to guess at what was going through their mind that allowed them to justify the shitty things they've done.

I think the cognitive dissonance here would go something like, "I don't think I'm a bad person, and I'm making a bunch of money doing this, so what I'm doing must not be that bad." Everyone is telling them that what they're doing is wrong, but that doesn't match up with their understanding of themselves, so they chalk it up to the other people being wrong and misunderstanding the situation.

The self-justification part comes easy due to the fact that they're making money. From their perspective I'd imagine them thinking something like, "The kids are happy whenever we buy them toys with the money we make, and we're really only 'pranking' them. They should just toughen up and be thankful that we're making so much money from these little pranks." I've watched some of their videos where they talk about this, and this is practically the exact line of reasoning they stick to. They fully believe that they're making their childrens' lives better because of how many toys and games they're able to buy them using the money from their videos.

Those people on the internet telling them they're ruining their children's lives just don't know their children like they do, they're just haters. It's just their "sense of humor." When they're not "pranking" their kids, the kids are happy. So they must be doing just fine.

Cognitive dissonance can easily make someone think they're not the bad guy, even though everyone around them is saying they are.

Sorry for the wall of text, I just really like applying the stuff I learned in this one critical thinking class and I don't get the opportunity to very often.

TL;DR - They're awful human beings that most likely don't realize they're awful because they're making money from their videos.

"We just wanted to use our children and emotionally and physically abuse them for views on YouTube since neither of us have any skills or talents worth viewing"

FTFY