Jon & Kate Plus 8 Generate Hate

Having a set of twins who are 7 and a set of sextuplets of 4 makes for an unusual family.  What's the difference between Jon and Kate Gosselin's family and the Octomom?  Well, besides the obvious reason, that the most numerous set of multiples are 2 less in the Gosselin home,  also, the Gosselins had lots of help from friends, neighbors, family members and co-workers when the sextuplets were tiny and constantly one or more needed a feeding, a burp, a change of clothing or a bath.  The Gosselins were both employed when the show, Jon & Kate Plus 8 began.  Conveniently enough, Kate was a part time neonatal nurse at a local hospital.

I've enjoyed watching the Gosselin brood grow, although I'm not a fanatic about watching the show.  I usually catch it channel surfing.  The shows are so much like each other that it takes me a few minutes to know if I've seen a particular episode or if it's a new one.

Of course, the show is full of the antics of all 8 children.  Maddy is one of the older twin girls and she is quite the Mother's Helper.  One of the little sextuplet boys likes to smell Kate's feet and is fascinated if she paints her toes or fingernails.  This season, just in case 8 children weren't keeping them busy enough, Jon and Kate got two German Shepherd puppies to add to their brood.

They've moved to a very luxurious house in the country this season.  I don't know the square footage of the house, but it's definitely several times bigger than the home they were living in in an Atlanta suburb.

Thinking that it was an innocent show, depicting nice people doing the almost impossible of taking care of 8 children, 6 of them pre-school, all day, every day (both John and Kate have given up their outside jobs), I was quite surprised to be directed to the website, found here, which is to put it mildly, critical of Jon and Kate and their motives for being on the show.

Some on the discussion board claim to be distant family members with inside knowledge. Others say they were neighbors in the Atlanta suburb and have been shooed off the public sidewalk by Kate when they've paused to watch a scene being filmed. Many of these people also have quite a lot to say about Kate's obsessive need for cleanliness. Some think the Gosselins are lining their pockets at the expense of their children's well-being and privacy, noting the filming of toilet training sessions, for instance. Whether you love or hate the show, the website is an interesting read. I hadn't given it much thought before that Jon and Kate may be exploiting their sextuplets. Thinking of having film crews in my home for days on end really gives me the creeps, and I wonder how they cope with it. Is Kate actually a mean-spirited control freak? Is Jon really afraid to speak up and say, "enough is enough"?