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I am not following your logic, but then I am one who is not particularly cerebral in their education and grew up working class poor. My D attends an Ivy League U in which H and I pay full freight. Do you honestly believe people must remain in the class in which they were born???</p>
<p>And just for clarification …I think Jon quit his job long before Kate started doing book tours.</p>
<p>Hmmmm well, I was afraid that would come out wrong.<br>
The Gosselin kids are middle class kids. They go to school with kids who are <em>trustafarians</em>. It can be really hard on kids when their friends have means and a lifestyle that are way above their own. Either they are getting a great deal of financial aid from the school or the show is paying their way.<br>
The quality of education is not superior to their public school option - IMO, so that is not why they go there.<br>
As for Jon and Kate - they don’t strike me as parents who value a liberal education.<br>
I wonder if they read them books. They don’t do anything cultural or educational with the kids - it’s all trendy vacations and amusement park stuff.</p>
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<p>Well, THAT’s never happened before…</p>
<p>Today is Mady and Cara’s birthday. The tabloid TV shows have been full of the parent’s pre-birthday bickering for days. Poor kids. :(</p>
<p>Nysmile if you so oppose the filming of the show, how do you propose the kids be supported financially? What kind of life would they have with two parents working and trying to provide daycare for 8 kids? I’m a working mom of 3 with a working dad, and it’s an ugly life. I agree the parents should try to work things out, but I don’t believe that the “normal” life is actually better in their circumstances.</p>
<p>To answer an earlier post-- I think I saw on one of the early seasons that Kate was a nurse. I remember them saying that she was working some weekend hours. This was when the kids were toddlers.</p>
<p>zoozermom: CC is playing tricks on me this morning. I deleted the post that you responded to because I hit “submit” rather than “preview”. Then, I saw your response and wrote a long post in regards to it and tried to post it but something weird happened and I lost that post. Weird, but I’ll try again.</p>
<p>Being a working Mom (with a working husband) is difficult but we manage. I did it and the majority of women do it. That’s life. </p>
<p>Kate has always had control issues and it’s really throwing her off her rocker now that Jon is asserting himself and taking some control over the situation. Kate is smarter about using the media for her advantage and because she’s so good at manipulating and telling half-truths, the media works for her. Jon, on the other hand, is only now learning how to fight back. He needs to find some direction and focus in his life sooner rather than later. It is obvious that the children have a strong bond with him and that is something that Kate should not try to break.</p>
<p>She’s a nurse. She could go back to nursing. She could try to find a nursing job within the public school district and her hours would coincide with her kids. Oh wait–she and her kids are too good for public school. She could write books or whatever. He could work in the tech field. He could go into another line of work. Perhaps they are unwilling to give up their current lifestyle. I mean, how many regular people take their kids on lavish trips, have enough toys to trip over, have acreage surrounding their McMansion, have personal chefs and drivers and nannies (Kate calls them “helpers” rather than admit that they are nannies), etc.?</p>
<p>There are regular people everyday in every town who manage to raise large families without pimping out their children in front of the camera. They work and they take advantage of daycare offered within most public schools (before school and after school daycare). They try to find jobs that coincide, as best they can, with their children’s schedules. When needed, they’ll ask a friend or a family member to help out in an emergency. The kids wear hand me downs and the Mom cuts their hair. They don’t go to spas or on fancy trips. They don’t have perfectly matching top of the line clothes or live in McMansions. Don’t even imply that the only way that these two parents can financially raise 8 kids is buy putting their kids in front of the camera. </p>
<p>It’s not up to me to figure out how they are going to raise their family. They made the family. It’s up to them to raise them. The adults should be the ones stressing and earning the money, not the kids! </p>
<p>What I despise about Kate is that she needs to be in control over everything. I despise what she did to her family and the church members that donated so much stuff to them when the sextuplets were born. I despise the fact that she had the nerve to bring the donations to a consignment shop, sell the stuff, and kept the money. Any normal person would have graciously accepted and used the donations or donated them back to another family that would have loved to have had them. I despise the fact that she found it appropriate to put Jon down for years in front of the camera–“too fat, too bald, don’t speak right”. I despise the fact that she always comes to Maddy’s defense yet rarely says a positive thing about Kara (who is the most normal of the bunch). Whenever she’s on camera with the kids, it looks forced and she doesn’t impress me with her parenting skills. </p>
<p>I vented enough. It’s not my life to live. I’ll wait for the tell all books when the kids get old enough to write them.</p>
<p>I see your points and agree with some, especially about Kate and her control issues. That’s absolutely true. I just, personally, don’t think the “normal” alternative is a better one in that situation. They could (note I said could, not did) make the opportunities presented by the show into a truly magical childhood for their kids. It’s a shame that it didn’t work out that way.</p>
<p>nysmile - you are on target.</p>
<p>Zoosermom - Don’t forget - after the sextuplets were born they got a huge addtion built onto their house, donated. They could have stayed there and lived there. It was close to a large hospital and she could easily have gotten a good paying job. part time or full time there. She has her BSN. That was not good enough for Kate - so they moved and moved again.</p>
<p>Jusatmomof4, I totally agree that they could/should have stayed in one of the other houses. the problem is that they’re where they are now, if that makes any sense, and it would be so miserable to uproot the kids again. Plus, how sure are we that they could even get jobs that would be appropriate for the family situation?</p>
<p>The sextuplets are 5 years old and they’ve moved at least twice. Moving again would be nothing out of the ordinary for them. On the other hand, does anyone honestly think that Kate is willing to downsize? Remember, what Kate wants, Kate gets. She loves living large. She not only loves the publicity and being in the media, she needs it to feed her martyr complex. She loves the weekly spa visits, the fancy trips, the plastic surgery, the big wardrobe, and all the material stuff. The children don’t need all of the stuff. The children don’t need expensive private school. They could actually benefit from some of the Special Ed. services available in the public school system (i.e.: speech services for Joel and Alexis). The children don’t need electric ATV’s and so many toys that they don’t even miss them when Kate sticks them in the cellar. They don’t need the piano that they simply left in the other house when they moved. </p>
<p>Where’s the million dollars that Kate made on her book tour while Jon stayed home and took care of the children? Does she consider that her money rather than community property? I honestly think Jon has showed tremendous restraint in the media regarding speaking about Kate up until recently. Is he supposed to sit back and say nothing while Kate continues to dramatize her sob story on various shows (the one’s with a strong female fan base) and in the magazines? </p>
<p>If they wanted to give it all up, they could. They would have to live as mere mortals. Kate will have never settle for an average life. Her whole life seems to be centered around running as far away from anything average as she can.</p>
<p>Nysmile, you seem to be very invested in Kate. Is there a reason for that?</p>
<p>I suppose she just seems to hit a nerve in me. It gets me upset when I see people placing too much value on material things and appearances rather than on the realities of their lives. For some people, they don’t figure out what’s truly important until it’s too late for them to enjoy it.
Life is too short for the superficial garbage.</p>
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It kind of seems to me that she is starting to do that very thing. It’s also hard to judge someone else’s priorities and personal growth.</p>
<p>It would be entirely possible to have a family on a show like that and have wonderful priorities. It doesn’t seem that they have achieved that, but Kate seems to have lightened up a lot. I can relate to her in a lot of ways because I’ve always had to carry my husband, although in different ways for different reasons.</p>
<p>Earth to Jon, come in Jon…"Life is too short for the superficial garbage. " that means the trips to Europe, the 22 yo girlfriend, the Ed Hardy shirts, etc…</p>
<p>Try working on a peaceful agreement/settlement with Kate. Your children will thank you for it.</p>
<p>Best thing that can happen at this point is that the two finish their "splitting up " and all the business that goes along with it so that they can then show us, but more importantly, their children what they are really made of. Whether that means making new priorities, cutting back on purchases, or the opposite - not doing things in the best interest of the kids, spending like there’s no tomorrow, etc.</p>
<p>While I don’t think Kate is a saint by any means, I think Jon has shown himself to be just as materialistic so I don’t quite understand the Kate-bashing on that count. I find Kate seems softer since the split, and there’s not been any news of Kate out partying and globe trotting. Maybe it’s just my empathy as a wife and mother, but Jon’s shown his behind to be quite honest, in my opinion, with the girlfriend(s), the PDA when he was previously so anti-papparazzi, the expensive gifts, the fancy hotels, all before a divorce is final. I always thought he was likeable until all that…now I just find him gross.</p>
<p>I can’t stand either one of them and just wish they would get off my TV. The only ones I feel sorry for are those kids.</p>
<p>I’ll join the club that will be waiting to read the mommy/daddy dearest books when they get old enough to write.</p>
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<p>Be careful what you wish for. I just heard on the news that Michael Vick has been signed for his own reality show. As disgusted as I am with Jon & Kate, I would rather be forced to watch them 24/7 than one episode of Vick.</p>
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<p>Well, for your information, Jon told Nancy Grace that his “diamond” earrings are really CZ. So there :p</p>
<p>(I’m with the folks that never want to see either of them on TV or a magazine cover again)</p>