<p>So what did Dr. Phil have to say?? Any insights?</p>
<p>Dr. Phil made several good points. He basically lambasted the fertility doctor for participating in this, but then said that to punish the mom at this point, is to punish the babies. </p>
<p>Kate from Jon & Kate was on a bit, and was just clueless as to how this woman is going to manage. She said the first year in their house, they had a team of 50 people per week to help them, and said burn out is common among these volunteers. But like I said earlier, this woman belongs to a mega church, and they will not let their reputation be tarnished by denying this woman the helps she needs, and they have plenty of hands to do so. My bet is they will pull through for her, big time.</p>
<p>Before she can have people in the home to help out, she is going to have to have room for them. The house is so crowded now, how in the world will she be able to add cribs and have room for the helpers to even be in the house?</p>
<p>Wonder if the church will build a bigger home for them, and in the meantime rent something bigger for them.</p>
<p>I would agree that withholding help would be detrimental to the children. They definitely will need all types of help. But hopefully social services or some other agency will oversee the funding and the help. Just sending Nadya money would be nuts. State agencies will have to at least oversee that the children are being properly cared for. We all know that Nadya’s “plan” (ha) is unrealistic to the max. Just her comment that she is gonna go to school is so out of whack…even with just six kids including special needs under the age of seven, that would be nearly impossible to do and still care for the kids. Does she really believe she will go to school and that the kids will somehow be fed, washed, laundry done, food shopping done, doctor appointments done, etc. by itself? No single person could do all that for fourteen kids even without going to college at the same time. And this is just talking about the most basic needs, not even the true care that children need. Even a day care center would not be allowed a staff of one for 14 kids including 8 infants. I think Nadya’s comments are so out of touch with no concern in the world, that she is inviting more scrutiny by government agencies. She is almost her own worst enemy.</p>
<p>So apparently her plan is to get volunteers from her mega church to handle all things child-related, while she goes to school, does homework, hangs out at the library, and lives as if she didn’t have 14 children? What am I missing here?</p>
<p>please, please, please tell us that someone with the child services is involved…</p>
<p>Dragonmom, it could be extremely hard for CPS to prove that a parent is unfit. As long as she has the armies of devoted church volunteers doing everything for her so the kids are not in any danger and are fed, clothed and educated, she is off the hook.</p>
<p>I really do wish her the best of luck. I am still trying to figure out what kind of transportation she could arrange to get 14 children to daycare on her college campus. </p>
<p>A bus? How do you unload the babies? One at a time? I still haven’t seen a stroller that can accommodate 8 babies at a time. </p>
<p>I had one baby, and another on the way and found college to be quite a challenge. Late night, pacing the floor with a crying baby and lack of sleep caused me to be exhausted and absolutely a zombie in the morning. That was two babies under age two. I took a leave of absence from college. I really wonder how she ever thought she could pull this one off. </p>
<p>How do you work when you have so many children? The children will be her work. </p>
<p>She had these kids having no conceivable notion of how she would make this happen. Perhaps that was her plan all along? She wants a tv show where she can be a “childcare expert.” Ha ha. Good one. </p>
<p>Parenting expert? More children doesn’t make you a better parent. </p>
<p>All the education in the world hasn’t given her any common sense. </p>
<p>I feel sorry for her kids. I think a lot of us have tried to be good parents and sometimes we have failed, sometimes we have succeeded. But all of us know how complicated parenting is. Her parenthood just became exponentially more complicated. </p>
<p>I hope Child Protective Services will take an active role in those kids lives. Someone will have to. She can’t do it all alone. (Even with that much help, and the kindness of strangers, friends and family.)</p>
<p>What a mess.</p>
<p>" A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman’s 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California’s taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.</p>
<p>Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.</p>
<p>Click here for photos of the octuplets.</p>
<p>Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.</p>
<p>Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman’s decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.</p>
<p>“It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments,” Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday’s paper. He called Suleman’s story “grotesque.”…
[FOXNews.com</a> - Octuplet Family Financial Burden May Fall on Taxpayers - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News](<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,491204,00.html]FOXNews.com”>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,491204,00.html)</p>
<p>I can see church members coming together for the infants, for the feeding and changing and the burping and the playing and the stroller walks. But the older children? I suspect not so much. And I just can’t see volunteers putting in the kind of hours needed knowing this mother is leaving the family to go to school. </p>
<p>I can see the help coming forward when a mom is present in the the home, but needs help due to the sheer number of children and the need for more hands. Volunteers will want to come assist to allow mom time to rest, bath, grocery shop, get to the dentist. But being there so mom can leave and go back to school? I think a lot will have the change for there to be an army of help for this situation. </p>
<p>I also wonder how one transports even just the octuplets. The management of the children, the household, the transportation is absolutely mind-boggling to think about. She will need three other adults to travel with when she would take 8 out together. This is not even taking into consideration the other 6, 3 of which are still toddlers themselves.</p>
<p>I can see church members coming together for the infants, for the feeding and changing and the burping and the playing and the stroller walks. But the older children? I suspect not so much. And I just can’t see volunteers putting in the kind of hours needed knowing this mother is leaving the family to go to school. </p>
<p>I can see the help coming forward when a mom is present in the the home, but needs help due to the sheer number of children and the need for more hands. Volunteers will want to come assist to allow mom time to rest, bath, grocery shop, get to the dentist. But being there so mom can leave and go back to school? I think a lot will have the change for there to be an army of help for this situation. </p>
<p>I also wonder how one transports even just the octuplets. The management of the children, the household, the transportation is absolutely mind-boggling to think about. She will need three other adults to travel with when she would take 8 out together. This is not even taking into consideration the other 6, 3 of which are still toddlers themselves.</p>
<p>I don’t know how she will get through the next several years, but flash forward to her in 17 years…</p>
<p>Do you think she will be on CC asking for help to get her children into college? </p>
<p>How much financial aid will she get, having 8 or 10 or 12 in college at the same time? We will be paying on this irresponsible woman’s actions for many, many years to come.</p>
<p>BunsenBurner, I don’t think you have to prove that the parent is “unfit” for child services to be involved. I’m not talking of removing the kids from the home. But social services are involved in homes/families where there is concern for the kids’ welfare and there is no question in my mind that social workers and agencies will be involved in overseeing that the kids’ needs are being taken care of. Even if she were a very fit mother, her circumstances are such that help of any kind will be needed. But in her case, it goes beyond the basic “help”. Surely Ms. Sulemon has come to the attention of family services and government agencies. :D</p>
<p>States have entilement programs for children with disabilities. Each state defines/identifies their criteria for disability (can be any of a variety of diagnoses) and offers intervention programs, supplemental income, etc for the kids. Nadia apparently was collecting disability for some of her children as well as herself. Guess no one is going to nominate her as the poster child for “onlies” or for good parenting.</p>
<p>I’ve been following this story almost exclusively by reading this thread and looking at the links people have posted. It’s fascinating, and disturbing on many levels. Let me say first that I personally am as unlike Ms. Sulemon as two persons of the same sex can be. DH and I have one child. He was all we judged ourselves able to afford. I’ve never been on TV talking about my parenting skills, etc, etc.</p>
<p>However. I’m really disturbed by the level of vitriol here on this thread and elsewhere. When the posts accusing her of promiscuity began, I started to wonder…what’s next? Witchcraft? She’s already been called a liar, a cheat, a nutcase, a narcissist, a plastic surgery patient (I didn’t realize that was either illegal or immoral…and the fact that news outlets are SEARCHING FOR RECORDS OF HER SURGERY makes me ill…), a publicity junkie, a beggar, a grossly unfit mother, and the list goes on.</p>
<p>Soozievt is correct. Nadya is never going back to school. She has a job, a full-time one, with lousy benefits and even less respect. She’s the mother of 14 children, and whether or not that was a good idea (and whether or not she deserves to be stood in the stocks and pelted with manure), there they are, the children. I don’t live in California, and I won’t be sending a donation to the website (but gosh, I defy anyone to say those kids aren’t incredibly cute), but I think Nadya and her volunteers are going to be paid to raise those children. Hopefully it can be accomplished via donations, a TV show, or the aforementioned witchcraft, and not by taxing the enraged citizens of California. I wish them well.</p>
<p>I love the news that she is now accepting Visa, Mastercard and paypal donations. What’s next selling the kids baby bracelets on ebay?</p>
<p>The fact is, no matter how much what she did was wrong and unacceptable (same with the doctor), the kids are gonna need support…both monetary and care. So, either through private donations or whatever publicity stunts she does, or through the state, money is gonna be needed. It is for the kids who never asked to be put in such a situation.</p>
<p>Soozie is exactly right, and I believe that without the scrutiny those children would be at serious risk for abuse or neglect.</p>
<p>I think social services get involved in families at risk and that doesn’t mean the kids will be removed but simply that there is intervention and oversight so that the kids’ needs are addressed and someone is looking out for their interests. </p>
<p>As far as donations go…not that I am making any…but if I were to consider it, it would not be in the form of money. This woman has demonstrated what she would do with the money…example…she did more IVF procedures which are expensive, possibly had cosmetic surgery, and so on, rather than got her own housing, etc. The types of donations that I think make more sense are donations of items like diapers, cribs, baby food, clothing, caretaker/nurses, etc.</p>