Stop by our house at any given time of the day, and I can tell you what will be on television. We no longer hear Dora screaming talking about her latest adventure, and even the refrain “You get the best of both worlds” isn’t as omnipresent as it once was. No, what you’ll hear coming from our tv is this:
“It all started with the two of us. Then we had our beautiful twin girls, Cara and Madelyn. We were so thrilled, we decided to try for just one more and ended up with six.”
Jon and Kate Plus 8. TLC’s hit reality series about a couple who has twins and sextuplets. Kate (my Kate, not the show’s Kate) is obsessed. I am not exaggerating, obsessed. And the funniest thing? Andy and I love to watch it, too. It’s the first show that the three of us have all actually enjoyed.
It is an interesting show… just watching how a family with eight kids manages to do anything is fascinating. I mean, can you imagine cooking for all those kids? Going to the grocery? Taking them to the dentist? Let alone taking plane trips to Utah and driving to Disney World. (Did you hear that, Jenny? Eight kids at Disney! I know that’s your idea of heaven).
A few weeks ago, there was a special episode in which Jon and Kate answered questions that many viewers had, including something I had always wondered about – where are the grandparents? Kate’s vague answer about how some grandparents are involved and some are not and theirs are in the “not” category didn’t satisfy my curiosity, so of course I Googled it.
And, as sometimes happens when we Google things, I learned more than I wanted to know.
Apparently there is a movement going to try to have the show taken off the air. People are concerned for the kids and feel as though it’s an invasion of their privacy… some even calling it child abuse. There’s a blog that is dedicated to disecting every detail of the show and reading all sorts of things into it… a little over the top, if you ask me. Not even (my) Kate is obsessed enough with the show to watch it with the sound off in order to assess the family’s body language.
Learning about the controversy surrounding the show has taken an edge off my enjoyment, that is for sure. I can really see both sides of the story – I can understand the concern for future consequences that the kids might face for having every moment of their lives caught on videotape. I think that’s something that all of us bloggin’ mommies have struggled with to some degree. And Jon and Kate are definitely profiting monetarily from the show, but really I’m not sure that is cause for condemnation. Can you imagine trying to feed and clothe eight kids on one income? Why not ride this wave while it’s here?
I also wonder if some of the criticism is simply because viewers don’t like (the show’s) Kate. She’s tough and straight-talking and OCD. However, if I had eight kids you would find me under the covers curled up in the fetal position sucking my thumb. So I can understand why she is a bit stressed at times. But it does make me wonder if she is treated so harshly because she isn’t Mary Poppins.
So basically, I don’t know where I stand. I want to give Jon and Kate the benefit of the doubt and to believe that they have the best interest of their kids in mind. But, I don’t want to participate in the exploitation of children either.
So, readers, what do you think?
