From the horrifically bad parenting department:
"Kate Gosselin 'Very Happy to Put Cameras Back in Front of Children"
"I am very happy I was able to put that back in their lives and there is nothing negative about it," Gosselin said during a Today show interview on Friday. "I love our crew. The cameras are on, and I love them. And the cameras are off, and they're helping me around the house. ... They are family. Production assistants come and babysit my kids sometimes even."
Hey parents! Want to earn some extra dough AND get free babysitting at the same time? Just have half a dozen or more kids at once, call over the nearest camera crew, and watch as the next episode of "This Is Your Life: Trainwreck Edition" is put on film for all to see. No, this couldn't possibly have any long-reaching ill effects on your children, whose privacy and dignity are mercilessly snatched away from them on a daily basis.
You know, I've always valued my alone time. Even as a kid, I would spend long periods locked in my room, sometimes reading, sometimes masturbating, sometimes just staring out the window daydreaming. In fact, when I was four my Dad had the gall to open the bathroom door and snap a picture of me while I was doing my business, because he thought that was funny, and I'm STILL pissed off about it.
However, as much as my Dad was an ass, I was fortunate enough not to have one of those brooding hen-type mothers who just had to know what I was up to at every second of every day, never giving me a moment's peace. Apparently I was more fortunate than I thought, because I also didn't have a mother who insisted on allowing a full-fledged film crew to follow me around the house like my life was some kinda sitcom.
And sure, maybe Gosselin's kids don't mind so much now (I wouldn't know, because the thought of actually watching a show like that makes me want to turn my stomach inside out and hose it down with a pressure washer), but what happens when they're all surly, maladjusted teenagers trying to find a date to prom? What about their first day of college? Their first job interviews? These kids are going to have this show hanging over their heads for the rest of their lives. They'll always be known as the "Jon & Kate Plus 8" kids. Part of that terrible reality show that everyone watched way back when reality shows were the going fad (please, God, let it be just a fad!).
Here we have a mother who is so accustomed to having absolutely no privacy at all (courtesy of having 8! kids!) that she is incapable of understanding how anyone else would want it, either, let alone the members of her own brood. For her, the camera crew isn't an intrusion -- it's free babysitting! Come on in, ladies and gentlemen, and when you're done filming the intimate, mundane details of our lives, you can help with the dishes!
There can only be one explanation for this, and I think I've figured it out. Having that many kids all at once makes you clinically insane, and so desperate for a tiny bit of fleeting relief from the crushing parental responsibilities that you will happily force your helpless children to be filmed and shown on national TV just for some extra help with chores.
This brings me to just a few of the things I relish about being childfree:
1. Never having to sacrifice so much of my solitude that I forget what privacy is, or why other people might need it.
2. Never being so desperate for housework help that I make my home life into a televised circus.
3. Never running the risk of having children who grow to despise me for putting them in a bad reality TV show when they were kids.
Three more reasons to celebrate the childfree life!
I used to be a fan of Kate Gosselin. Not the "Mom of 8" Kate, but the relentless bitchy Kate who didn't take any crap off anybody. Floved it! Now, I can't stand to look at her or her children. She's a media whore, but her children are the ones doing all the dirty work. I would be mortified if my first poo was documented on a television show, let alone filmed. Nothing about this is normal, no matter how much she wants it to be.
ReplyDeleteAlso, she can very well go back to being a L&D nurse and be a single mother. There are plenty of people who raise that many children (and more), and do it well on much less than million-dollar incomes
I was really hoping that the whole Gosselin phenomenon would end with their divorce. I've never seen the show, but that family is all over the news and I'm sick of hearing about them. But no, then Kate goes on Dancing with the Stars, and now it's Kate + 8. Yesterday I heard that she's trying to become the new Bachelorette on ABC! What kind of lunatics would sign up to marry that train wreck (as you so succinctly put it)?
ReplyDeleteI will never understand why obviously bad parenting such as this is so glorified in our society.
@Callie -- I can only imagine the years of expensive therapy it will take for those poor kids to come to terms with the compound loss of both their privacy and childhoods. And in reference to Gosselin, as the saying around here goes, "That woman ain't right."
ReplyDelete@Amy -- As tired as I also am of hearing about Kate, watching her on one of those horrible dating reality shows has the potential for Schadenfreude hilarity of epic proportions (at least for about 15 minutes). Especially if they made it a blind date situation, complete with special cameras to fully capture the look of unbridled horror on the contestants' faces as they ran shrieking from the room, after discovering that hooking up with this particular date could land them the responsibility for over half a dozen kids.
It would be SO wrong. But hilarious.