You Seem Like You'd be a good Dad

This. is the post. About Jon & Kate + 8. If you are new to the world of celebrity gossip, or just have been living under a rock for the past three months, then I will give you some background. Jon & Kate were a couple who fell in love and got married but then found out that they had difficulty getting pregnant. They then got artificially insemeniated (well, Kate did) and had twins. Then they decided that they wanted just ONE more child, and got artificially insemeniated again. However, this time there were SEVEN kids, instead of one. They decided to go on with the pregnancy; unfortunately one of the babies died, but six survived. They were then profiled on some Discovery Health shows because of the large number of their family, and eventually, they were given their own tv show on Discovery Health, who then moved it to TLC. That leads us to today, where these young children and their parents have been on tv for a good couple of years now. I have enjoyed watching them and have my favorites among the children: Mady, Alexis and Aeden. All very adorable and while I think Mady might have some childhood depression issues, still, they are in a loving household. Regardless of the previous rumors that Kate is crazy and sucks and just wants the cameras, they are loved. And also, just because she spanks her children doesn't mean anything, as long as she's not pulling a Joe Jackson and beating them everyday. But, I digress.

I watched this show because I liked how cute they did things, how they had special days for all of the children so that they didn't feel left out and the fact that all of the siblings really love each other. However, then came an annoucement: Jon and Kate were getting a divorce. And they were still showing episodes before this annoucement. The fifth season premiere was difficult to watch. I sat down with my sister to do so, and thought I would be watching a wonderful episode about the sextuplets sixth birthday. Boy, was I wrong. While their party looked like it was a lot of fun, it was plauged by the paparazzi and the fact that their parents weren't visably speaking to each other. Jon was only in the episode for about 10 minutes, and at the party, Kate and him barely spoke to each other. And this is where I got disgusted with the show. The fact of the matter is, there were a couple more episodes that were being shown after this one. I'm sure the parents continued their chilly repertoire while the kids carried on, probably not unknowlingly. I couldn't watch them because I couldn't support having this family's personal struggle with marriage and seperation and divorce be on television. Not only does it suck to have parents who are divorced (as mine are, and have been since I was 10) but the fact that there is now going to be a recorded documenation of the dissemination of their marriage for their children to look at in the future is ridiculous. More ridiculous is that they have other people watching it. It was mentioned in a previous season's episode that the sextuplets enjoy watching their own show on dvd. I'm sure it is really fun to see themselves on tv doing a lot of fun things. For that, those dvds will be memorable, as I'm jealous of people who have home videos from their childhood. However, now they have recorded documenation that their lives are about to change very quickly and very sadly for them. At some point, these children will go on to different kinds of schools, where children might not be very nice to them, and point out that their parent's marriage broke on television. Some family issues are very private, and even though, yes they signed on for this show, and yes, this is reality tv, at some point everyone has to take a step back and realize, for better or for worse, that these children are going to be effected by this.

I don't want to judge them for being on tv, I don't want to say that that caused stress in their marriage, because in all honesty we will never know. And I was pretty nuetral about picking sides or judging Jon and/or Kate in their marriage.

HOWEVER now that there are photos of Jon walking around and taking vacations with some 23 year old ugmo, I cannot keep silent. While yes, I don't know what happened in their marriage and yes, it's not really my business, I happen to think that this is just distasteful. I recognize that you want to have a different life and want to move on, but what I think he is not thinking about is HIS CHILDREN. I found out that my dad cheated on my mom and then had to sit back and watch my father take this woman to family functions where my mom should have been or see him kiss her in public. It was hard. And for Jon to be going around taking vacations with this woman while not yet officially and legally divorced from Kate is rough. And, again, how do I know he's running around with a 23 year old not hottie? The tabloids. There are HUNDREDS of pictures all over the pleace of them on vacation, them on a boat, them grossly smoking cigarettes together. It's just out of hand. Jon has brought this woman to their home to hang out with the children and she sunbathed. While the sextuplets are young enough to probably be confused about this woman and like her, the twins are older and I'm sure it's difficult for them to sit around and watch her and their father parade around, all the while knowing that this is who their father is dating now. I just think that Jon needs to have a little self control and not be selfish. The thing about divorce is that it hurts all parties, but the adults usually spring back a little faster than the children do. Divorce is the most hurtful to children and the fact that this divorce is so public is just going to make it worse in the long run for these children. Unfortunately, Jon seems to have not figured that out yet. Just because you don't let your children read the tabloids does not mean that other children's parents do not let their children read the tabloids. At some point, these pictures, and any more pictures in the future are going to come up. I say that we should all stop giving Jon, Kate and their 8 children any attention and let them figure out their own problems.

Also, I only call the 23 year old girlfriend not cute because she's really not cute. Maybe it's the way she dresses, I don't know.