<p>Why did she go on The View? Why does she go on the AM talk shows (the ones with a strong female fan base)? She uses the media to get what she wants too. </p>
<p>Jon wants the kids off the TV. He made his feelings known to the audience at end of last season. He didn’t want the show to go on. Kate did. Whether you like him or not, getting the kids off the TV is a good idea. </p>
<p>If the adults want to be in front of the camera–fine. The kids, don’t have a say in the matter. They do what they’re told (or what they’ve been trained to do). It’s time they be given the gift of a normal childhood.</p>
<p>According to People mag web site Jon has removed money from their joint account, leaving bank over draft notices. This whole situation has become a fiasco. One day those children are going to do a search on Google and they will say all the tabloid headlines and the way their parents acted during this divorce.</p>
<p>I hope someone with some common sense and decency will step in and represent the kids in an effort to get them off the show. If their parents want to look like fools in front of the camera–that’s their choice. Leave the kids out of it.</p>
<p>NYsmile is right- it’s both of them. I was just commenting on the show with Jon on it. These two are both nuts, completely self-absorbed and immature to effectively parent. Bad enough they dragged the kids through the public sphere to make a cushy lifestyle for themselves; ten times worse they are now dragging the kids through the public sphere in an ugly divorce battle. Sick sick sick. I guess Jon just gets my goat because he’s so full of deep do-do: he obviously did the show all these years and only now objects to it? </p>
<p>The kids need a sane, objective, independent adult to protect them from all this. What do you call such a person- ad litem? An adult whose job focuses only and solely on their wellbeing (since clearly the parents are incapable of that).</p>
<p>He (and her) may be “using the kids” in a traditional sense, but if the money can send them all to private school and private university for the next 14-17 years, it can be easily justified in the mind of one person.</p>
<p>I still think that without the show and its money, it will be the kids who will suffer most. I may not agree with everything Kate does, and especially with what she says, but I think she tries to do her best for them. There’s no excuse for any spouse to clean out the money used to support their kids. One of my best friends had that happen to her last year. I think that’s one of the ugliest things a person can do to his or her kids.</p>
<p>I agree with nysmile - I think the kids need a court appointed guardian to look out for their best interests. Neither parent is capable of doing this right now.</p>
<p>crescent22 - justified by whom?
This family lives in a very good public school district. They insist on bussing their two kids over 30 miles to a posh private school. They would be better off with a more <em>normal</em> life and attending school in their neighborhood. IMO.</p>
<p>BECAUSE Kate always came across as pesonally unlikeable, Jon had so much good will built up…you know, poor guy married to that witch, who can blame him for wanting a divorce, etc. It blows my mind that he is just throwing away all that good will with both hands.</p>
<p>I take the attitude that if an argument seems reasonable on its face - namely we want to send the kids to private school - we take it as acceptable unless there is meaningful proof otherwise. </p>
<p>Now it may be true that the combination long commute and exposure to the cameras is not worth it, but that’s a subjective decision.</p>
<p>I’m only defending the thought process here, not necessarily Jon.</p>
<p>Question from someone who has never watched the show and only follows it to the extent it has reached general headlines/tabloids - what was Jon (and Kate)'s profession before the show came along? (too lazy to search for it and the first quick google search failed)</p>
<p>I agree, whoever is his publicist needed to be fired yesterday. On Friday my girlfriend and I talked about this and said just wait, she will come out and say the kids want this, which is what she did today. I posed it this way, this is what Kate will do:
Tell the kids Daddy wants this to end, and you know because we did this show you got to meet the Philly Fanatactic and those ball players in the club house, you got to go to Sesame STreet Live, Cake Boss, those crazy play houses, Disney World, Hawaii, California, Utah, this house, etc, etc, and if we don’t do this we won’t be able to do it anymore.</p>
<p>Thus, the kids are going to say I want to do this.</p>
<p>Both parents IMO are using the kids as a tool in the divorce.</p>
<p>Jon was an IT guy, back in the early days (I think they were still in their 1st house) there would be episodes of her being at the hair salon and calling him up and saying you need to do XYZ as she sat in the salon. When her book came out and they started making more money, she was doing tours, and I bet that he had to quit then because they were contracted to TLC for filming and you can’t film if both parents are not with the kids.</p>
<p>crescent22 - I guess I see your point but I am very familiar with their public school district. It is indeed excellent. One of the top. The opportunities for those kids in that public school are enormous. Neither Jon nor Kate strike me as particularly cerebral in their educations. I think the private school thing is just for show. What it boils down to is those kids are basically middle class kids with middle class parents. The private school is attended by kids who come from wealthy families. When they get older the <em>class</em> issue will become more noticable. Their growing up years will be more <em>normal</em> if they attended their local public school.</p>
<p>Kate keeps running to the media too. They both need to keep to their lawyers and keep out of the press. If she was writing checks on the account with $200,000 in it then she should have been keeping a daily eye on it - there is such a thing as online banking.
I actually thought she was going to take the high road here but I haven’t seen it.</p>
<p>There is no child psychologist in the world who would say it is in these young kids’ best interest for their parents to be using the media to engage in a ridiculously public and bitter divorce feud. Why are they publicizing this stuff? Any goodwill this family had at one time is long gone. They are killing the golden goose, and are forcing their kids to witness the bloody spectacle.</p>
<p>My guess is that the greedy parents had not previously set up trust funds for the kids, so Kate is trying to keep Jon from getting any money in the divorce settlement by dumping him off the show and putting any money they did have in trusts for the kids, figuring she will be able to continue to fund her lavish lifestyle via “Kate + 8.” (And I am sure Kate can get the kids to say they want to continue with the show, if the kids know that quitting means no luxury vacations, beautiful clothes, “helpers,” leaving the school they have been attending, etc.) Taking the money from the joint account was probably Jon’s retaliation.</p>
<p>This scorched earth policy will benefit no one but the divorce lawyers and the child psychologists who are guaranteed lots of billable hours for lots of years courtesy of the 8.</p>
<p>“He (and her) may be “using the kids” in a traditional sense, but if the money can send them all to private school and private university for the next 14-17 years, it can be easily justified in the mind of one person.”</p>
<p>Well sure…every nutbar parent, every abusive parent, can justify in their own minds some kind of logic that makes it okay to be abusive to their children. In their minds, what they are doing is good for the kids–always. It’s how they sleep at night while at the same time putting their own interests far ahead of their childrens’ needs. Just because they have some kind of mental excuse that protects them, doesn’t mean they are seeing reality, being rational, or somehow not hurting their kids.</p>
<p>Being in a private school would be flexible for their schedule. Attending the local public school (CW) would hamper their ability to travel on their mini-trips due to unexcused absences. I’m really surprised they are not homeschooled.</p>
<p>laxmom - good point. God forbid they should have to commit to school attendance.
They aren’t in CW though. They township they live in actually is in that other school district next door - the one with two starting quarterbacks in the NFL yesterday.</p>