<p>I was thinking about her divorce rate comment of multiples, and I am sure it is true, but as I ran through my head the quints, sextuplets, septuplets that have become famous, I maybe wrong, but aren’t all of their parents still together? Maybe the difference is they lived their life privately.</p>
<p>Look at all of the reality shows that had married couples, only the Osbournes are still married, of course Gene Simmons and Shannon are still happily unmarried.<br>
Jessica SImpson and Nick Lachey — divorced
Meet the Barkers with Travis Barker and Shana Moakley —divorced
Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro — divorced
Danny Bonaduce (sp?) —divorced</p>
<p>and now they are going to be number 5 on the list. Lesson learned, if Bullet comes home with a contract for a reality show, I know hidden somewhere in there must be divorce papers. That or if he brings a mini-van home (that was always our joke…I am not a mini-van kind of girl, give me my Denali, no offense)</p>
<p>Kleibo-I love that. However my kids go to BS (day students) and we work our tails off to do it. WE did it for the education. but you are right about money, fame etc… Like a drug. I know people will think I’m nuts but I keep thinking about their retrospective episode when they played the video of their engagement. That was not fake. I really think it is sad, and I wish for a happy ending.</p>
<p>I had to google them. Still don’t remember them, but now I wish I saw the revisited, since it was done before Lance died in 01. I just can’t imagine how hard his life was in 71 as an openly young(20) gay male.</p>
<p>downtoearth, I agree that watching the recaps of previous confessionals, you can see the degradation of their marriage. They started as a couple, and slowly, but surely you can see Jon remove himself and Kate start to thrive. Looking over the marathon, you can see things like when they went to Disney and she had the ice cream melt down, he was giggling, that’s Kate, then you see the 4th of July jacket meltdown and it wasn’t so cute anymore, then you see the Hawaii renewal vows and walk away with the feeling he was doing everything she said because it wasn’t worth the fight. When you stop fighting the marriage is over, because you no longer care either way.</p>
<p>I know it sounds strange, but I believe she does see and understand she has some culpability. She said something along the lines of…Have I been hard on Jon, Yes. Do I regret it? Yes. If she has a publicist which I am sure she does (just for the fact of speaking arrangements and book tours) The publicist should have told her to end it there, to change the negative public opinion and soften her. She didn’t she went onto say, but Jon made bad decisions. My heart was warming towards her until the last statement. Own your mistakes and don’t deflect.</p>
<p>Regarding the divorce rate of parents with multiples - of the two couples I know the best who had twins, both couples divorced shortly after the kids started school.</p>
<p>I only know one couple with multiples, they had trips, 2 yrs after their first. All of the children were conceived through IVF. The trips are now 9, the eldest is 11 and the folks are still together. Not only did they have to deal with IVF they are an inter-faith couple. I guess they are a true love story since they have beat the odds, IVF, multiples and religion.</p>
<p>Looking back their life would have been a great reality show. AF Fighter pilot, avid hunter, moving around the world with 4 children under the age of 2, while they decide which religion the children should be raised in. Throw in him going for 4 month long deployments to war zones with her stateside raising the babies by herself, seperating from the AF to fly commercial after 9/11 and living in AK. You hit it all. We got Deadliest Catch/Military Channel/Medical Discovery/J & K all rolled up in one show.</p>
<p>There is a couple at church with triplets who are about 7 and they are still together. I’ve always thought that once the kids are grown, the parents should just be able to put “raised triplets” on their resume and get any job they want!</p>
<p>The parents of multiples we know are still married & we know quite a few of them. The kids knew families with multiples in HS – most of them in intact families as well. None of them were in the limelight, which is much more caustic.</p>
<p>RE: Post #361 - I don’t think Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed have ever been married. Maybe that’s the real secret to relationship success & happiness!</p>
<p>That’s why said happily unmarried. Gene Simmons always states he has been happily unmarried for 23 yrs :)</p>
<p>I love their show. Their sons personaility is identical to our DS1, andlooked like him (curly hair) until he accepted his AF scholarship. We watch the show as a family, and elbow each other saying that’s DS1 whenever Nick talks! We also ROFL when they play practical jokes on him…my favorite was when he returned and there was a baby beause he told Nick it was a phase Mom was going through, and then a “social worker” showed up at the house, and he was holding the baby with a KISS bib while she kept saying your wife and he kept saying I am happily unmarried or when Shannon had a horse delivered to the house, or even the Kentucky Derby and him in dr. dentons on a cot while she and her sister slept in the bed!</p>
<p>My psycho-whackjob neighbor has triplets and three others under six. They were on Super Nanny (the one with Nanny Jo) a couple of years ago. Parents are both cops and the issue that brought them to the show was that the mom couldn’t warm up to her kids. Nasty piece of work. Every morning I see her walk past my house to take the kids to school screaming at them like they’re dangerous perpetrators.</p>
<p>Add “Hogan Knows Best” to that list (google Hulk & Linda Hogan for the details of a particularly nasty divorce…she’s now dating the pool guy who is younger than her daughter).</p>
<p>Albert Brooks (a comic genius if there ever was one) did a movie parody of reality TV in 1979 called “Real Life”. It was a satire of “An American Family” with the Louds.</p>
The show was moving and the mother was taught to hug her children, but it didn’t last past the show. The woman is completely out there. Acts like a drill sergeant to those beautiful little kids. Always screaming. Just ewwww. At least Kate adores her kids and that has to count for something.</p>
<p>I have a friend whose dad was a drill sergeant and the kids were raised accordingly. He turned out okay, but he’s a lot closer to his inlaws than his own parents.</p>
<p>Being a drill sargent is a gamble–sometimes it works & other times it backfires. My HS BF was raised by drill sargent dad. It worked OK initially but things faltered when dad quit his job & BF had to support the entire family while in HS. Things continued downhill for BF & their family after that. BF was closer to him mom & sister than their dad.</p>
<p>Some folks attempt to militarize situations which threaten to become “chaotic,” which is easy to criticize as an outsider. Still, parents who set no boundaries aren’t doing anyone any favors either. Finding the “happy medium” is elusive for many & varies depending on one’s point of reference.</p>
<p>I remember the Kienast quints. They were born about the time of my youngest sister. They were featured in Good Housekeeping yearly for a few years, then every 3-5 years maybe? My mom would by the magazine whenever they were on the cover. They lived quiet lives except for the magazine covers. I remember that the dad committed suicide. It was so sad. I think the pressures on parents of greater multiples is quite intense.</p>
The kids in that family are very young, and the mother went on tv to get help for being unable to be loving to her kids. That’s not a recipe for secure kids.</p>