Do you watch that show, “Jon and Kate, Plus 8“?  I have watched it off and on, never an entire episode, but my daughter, Sarah loves it.
I’ve read about Jon and Kate  Gosselin. Especially about Kate, people really love-to-hate her, which I find oddly fascinating. She’s just a mom, trying to do her best, like any other mom. I don’t get the venom, the hate, the Kate-as-the-devil-ness of it all. People go on about how she speaks to Jon, talking down to him, or whatever, but that’s behavior that I’ve seen in many relationships. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes it’s the …read more

Did anyone see the Jon & Kate Plus 8 episode where they pai  a lot of money for 2 German Shephards?
She had chosen the dogs and the dogs’ names before she told the kids they were even getting dogs. Hello. Fun stealer.
I woke up this morning and thought, “Now I really have to get that dog fixed!” about our puppy.
Oh shut up, America. The secret’s out and I know you’re as broke as me. I didn’t know the dog wasn’t fixed when I agreed to rescue her and I didn’t have $50-$100 just sitting around waiting for something to spend it on.  Keep the judgy …read more

I became pro-choice because I am so pro-life really.
I make a distinction between wanting to kill a baby – which is no “right” I feel compelled to defend – and enforcing personal autonomy over women’s bodies and this includes ferility, having many babies and large families, medicine, battery and rape within marriage, etc.
I came to my pro-choice stance in college reading the science fiction classic, Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card. In the book, America has put a limit on the number of children families can have to preserve resources. But, they are looking for a genius child to save the …read more

Maybe those who criticize the marriage of Jon & Kate plus 8 haven’t figured this out:
Happily Ever After was a damn lie. No one rides off into the sunset. The days are not all rosy and loving and no one is spending hours every day lying in bed telling each other how wonderful the other is. It’s just not the reality of marriage.
The reality is this:
Half (50%) of Americans get divorced.
Statistically, it’s probably accurate to assume that ALL married people find marriage challenging and MOST married people are sometimes unhappy in their marriage and EVERY married person sometimes does something imperfect.
In fact, the state of …read more

Last night as the kids and I were snuggle up with popcorn to watch Jon & Kate, plus Ei8ht I saw the teaser for the Nanny episode and I thought up the perfect episode.
TLC, if you’re listening, here’s the episode I want to see:
I want to see the viewers who are critical of Kate’s mothering of twins and sextuplets be the nanny for a few days!
Wouldn’t that be good, wholesome, karmic fun?
You think it’s so easy? We’ll see how YOU do with every eye in America watching you babysit 8 kids under 7.
I want to see Kate behind that little monitor she was using …read more

Last night the kids and I settled down for a little snuggle with Jon and Kate plus Ei8ht.
Truly, it’s one of the few shows on television without any inappropriate language or sexual connotation. And my kids like to watch it as much as I do.
They fight and love each other like you and Daddy, my 6-year-old daughter Ainsley remarked.
That’s right, we fight and love each other. Most married people do, marriage is hard, honey, I told her.
They got special treatment all the way through the Pittsburg Zoo with close up petting and feeding of animals and the zookeeper bonding with animal …read more

You were rude to your husband, my friend said to me on Sat. She had observed a completely ordinary interaction between my husband and I.
I responded to her criticism by going into defensive hyper-sensitive justification mode that quickly turned into sobs.
I’ve been internalizing every hateful, critical and harsh comment against Kate Gosselin mother of sextuplets and star of Jon & Kate, Plus 8, that has been written on my BlogFabulous post Kate Gosselin, Time’s Person of the Year.   Evidently, many, many people find Kate’s treatment of Jon despicable beyond redemption.
My friend’s benign comment simply provided an excuse for all that internalized criticism to bubble over …read more

I saw this documentary about the Dionne Quintuplets and thought there were some relevant similarities between them and one of Discovery’s reality shows, Jon & Kate plus 8.
According to The Free Dictionary:
The Dionne Sisters were born in 1934, and were the first quintuplets ever to survive their infancy. The odds were one in 57 million.
Two days after Annette Lillianne Marie, Cécile Marie Emilda, Emilie Marie Jeanne, Marie Reina Alma Dionne, and Yvonne Edouilda Marie were born in a Canadian village their father, Oliva, was approached by fair exhibitors.
Reluctantly, after speaking to his wife, Elzire, he signed a contract. Already the parents of five children, he made a deal …read more

Beth, a friend of Kate Gosselin’s, star of Jon & Kate, Plus 8, posted a comment on a post I wrote, of questionable tone, called Sextuplets, My Sympathies.  (I am working on the tone, as you can see in Tone Turtle.) The post got a much more extreme response than I expected. I meant no harm to Kate Gosselin, who should win Time Magazine’s Person of the Year Award, in my opinion. I felt our exchange was worth it’s own post. If only because I feel totally awesome that someone I’ve seen on TV took the time to write to me.
Tracee,
While everyone is …read more

 There was a story yesterday on MSNBC.com about a woman who is suing her doctor because her IVF (in-vitro fertilization) resulted in twins . . . and she only wanted one child.
Yeah, make IVF and fertility treatment and medical help in general less affordable and accessible for everyone else. Oh, and the child, never mind that “Mommy doesn’t really want you.”
In fact her quote was “We were devastated to learn we were having twins.” Scrapbook that. I wonder which of the twins she considers “the extra burden one.”  
I nominate this woman for the “despicable human award.” Does that exist? At the very least I think she should be …read more