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 to yourselves.

I figured I could just keep her in the backyard until I could afford the vet. Frankly, I had some human medical issues – like my hemochromatosis, hormones and family dentist visits – I wanted to take priority.

Then this morning I found the neighbor’s dog in my yard and Lily, my tiny little dog comparitavely was hiding from them in the front yard. Guess I have to move her vet visit up ASAP if she’s going to get unauthorized visits from the new neighbors.

I’m like Kate – what was I thinking saying Yes to a dog?

I hope it’s not too late – the last thing I need is for my one dog to morph into 6.

Post from: Blisstree

Kate Gosselin Got Dogs!

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 world so they test certain bright children and allow a few families to have 3 children.

Fundamentally I want the government and all other entities to stay out of my womb. Period.

It may sound far-fetched, but China has been doing this for decades. I’ve heard many people say they think the government should legislate or regulate fertility treatments because of Nadya Suleman’s Octuplets and such responsibility should be prevented and we shouldn’t have to pay for it. Next thing you know we’re telling Michelle Duggar she can’t have any more children because who would want 19 children? Then were prosecuting people who try to have a singleton after a multiple birth.

No way. I defend Octimom’s right to have as many children as she wants. I defend my right to have only two. I defend Roe v. Wade only as a defense of physcial autonomy for women.

Think Ender’s Game is ”just a book?” So was The Communist Manefesto, The Bible, and Fatherland.

The entire universe was created with the words “Let there be light.” 

I defend her right to choose. I defend her right to reproduce I defend every single woman’s physical autonomy.

Post from: Blisstree

Octimom, Choice, Life, & Science Fiction

Visit MSNBC.com to see Nadia Suleman, the mother who gave birth to Octuplets this month.

Nadya, mother of 14 children, the last litter being Octuplets, says she wanted a very large family after being an only child. (Note to my friend Rebecca – let this be a lesson to you – have two to prevent your child from longing for 14.)

There were a few odd questions in the Interview. Do you have the right to have 14 children?

Last I heard, we lived in American and we’re allowed to have as many or as few children as we like.

She isn’t on welfare so just shut up about her “right to have children she can’t afford.” (If she were to go on welfare – so is half the country due to the current unemployment crisis so get over it.) This is America – we ALL “have children we can’t afford.” Gimme a break already. We can’t “afford” either one of ours save for the fact that we seem to manage feeding and clothing them and sending them to school and taking them to the Dr. every now and then.

This woman reminds me of Angelina Jolie quite a lot actually. I think it’s the lips, cheeks, hair. And the love of babies born of childhood and adolescent pain and loneliness. It’s a shame her dream doesn’t come with Brad Pitt or Jon Gosselin, or another hot, dedicated father who loves the large family equally.

Her fertility logic – that she wanted to use up the embryos before she quit so they wouldn’t be destroyed or stay frozen – makes sense. I’ve always wondered why people who oppose stem cell research are fine with in-vitro and then throwing away embryos. It has always seemed a contradiction in values to me. There’s a certain logic in resolving the conflict by having them implanted “knowing” that they won’t all make it.

I mean, obviously she was thinking the doctor would implant 6 and 3,4,5 would not survive and she’d increase her family by 1,2, or 3. The odds of the implantation resulting in two split eggs and all the others surviving are less than 1 in a kajillion.

Has to be an Act of God, you just can’t plan this kind of science. One million rich families could try to make this happen and it wouldn’t.

But, who can blame Nadya’s mother for leaving? Her poor mother only wanted one child so that’s what she had. Now she’s been raising 6 children and her crazy single daughter is bringing home 8 tiny babies. Tiny babies are cute an all but they pretty much equal hard labor.

Welcome to the new profession of Celebrity Motherhood Nadya. I wonder if its queens Kate Gosselin and/or Mommy Duggar sent gift baskets or email tips on how to negotiate with PR people and the media? I’m sure she could use the pointers.

Post from: Blisstree

Celebrity Motherhood – Octopulets Mom Joins Ranks

I thought Kate Gosselin was the only woman on the planet who had twins and then Sextuplets.

Turns out Betty and Eric Hayes had 2 sets of twins and then a set of sextuplets, one of which has cerebral palsy.

The image of her older brother, Kyle, volunteering to make Rebecca, his charge because he knows she finds his presence calming, was truly one of the most touching examples of a young man, as I’ve seen in a long time.

The difference between The Hayes and The Gosselin’s family style is marked.

One thing I noticed is that the mother, Betty Hayes is much more laid back than Kate who has some sort of perfection disorder. Kate has all these very specific rules about how things absolutely must be for her to be okay. It must be exhausting to live under that kind of pressure.

Because everything must be done just so, the parenting style is to get the kids out of the way and serve them.

Betty, liberated from that, seems to enjoy her role much more. Her kids help around the house. This does make it more chaotic – but, they also LEARN how to participate in the making of a home and it looks like a lot more fun. My parenting style is much more like Betty’s. My children will be self-suffecient and capable when the move out of the house.

And yet, I find Kate more entertaining and relatable.

I, personally, thing TLC’s Monday line-up is the best thing on TV.

I love to see family life in such a positive light.

Some environmentalists believe having such a large family is bad for the environment. I disagree.

I think it’s about the quality of human being you’re raising. Have you seen My Super Sweet 16? Those kids are generally raised in very small families, but they’ve been so over-indulged that they are hyper-consumers and bad human beings.

I’ll take a large family raising good humans over a small family raising bad people any day. So would the planet and its environment, I imagine.

I even enjoy watching Michele Duggar manage her home schooling, ultra-conservative bunch of almost 18 children. Who cares if she believes Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs? She can manage 17 children by herself, while pregnant, with a smile on her face and I heard her children say She NEVER yells. Imagine that.

Another thing I love about these families is the example of marriage. Every one of these men Matt Roloff, Jim Bob Duggar, Eric Hayes, to Jon Gosselin are examples of good guys. Really great men who are devoted to their families. It’s nice. Makes me appreciate my husband – also a real family guy. I love a guy who can say, “You’re a princess who pooped in her shoe. Oh, well, it could be worse,” as he handles his daughter’s diarrhea crisis in a public restroom.

These families – every one of them – can teach us something about valuing children and family and being happy.

They all strike me as . . . happy.

Roloffs and Gosselins

Post from: Blisstree

Twins, Twin & Sextuplets

Hop on over to Simply Thrifty to meet the new writer Kadi Prescott. You may remember Kadi from her debut on SuperNanny as a frazzled mother of 7 children.

She’s been writing SuperNanny Rules with Gayla McCord for a few months now.

What may prove more amusing, and I say amusing with great empathy, than watching Kadi discipline 7 children, will be watching the self-described “Anti-Thrift” attempt to become frugal in the face of increasing gas and grocery prices. Kadi writes:

My spending habits have always been a bit on the frivolous side. My daddy always told me that I’d better marry rich. So what did I do? I married a middle class, blue collar worker and popped out seven babies.

Yeah, that’s a problem. (One that makes me chuckle, like I chuckle while I watch Kate from Jon & Kate plus 8 be compulsively clean in the face of sextuplets and twins.)

Affording the day to day expenses of raising seven kids, is hard enough without adding the big ticket items that every American family has to inevitably face. Becoming thrifty is not just a novel idea, it is the only way that we are going to be able to survive on one income.

Good luck Kadi!

Image Source: Simply Thrifty

Post from: Blisstree

Thifty Kadi