I Think I’m Done With Jon And Kate Plus 8

I never thought that I would say those words.  I mean, I enjoy a good train wreck as much as anyone.  But all kidding aside, what really cinched it for me was tonight’s episode of American Chopper.  (Did I get the name right?)  I watched the show solely to see the children (all the children, not just the obviously favored sextuplets) and their development.  Speaking of all the children, why the hell weren’t Mady and Cara involved in the chopper episode, but I’m getting off of the subject.  

It was completely obvious that these past few weeks have been a shadow of former Jon and Kate shows.  I wonder if they are being given scripts to read and perform because what I was watching sure as hell wasn’t Jon and Kate Plus 8.  These past three weeks Kate has hardly criticized or yelled at Jon or the kids.  That is not Kate.  Not like I want to see Kate-Shrew unleashing a torrent of fury on her helpless family, but I’m getting the feeling that the producers told Kate to chill.  It is so obvious that Jon and Kate are separated (not like there was ever any doubt).  These poor children, the older ones more so than the younger ones, are all living in some sort of alternate reality that begins and ends when the cameras start and stop rolling.

I was reading a bunch of message boards proclaiming Kate as some sort of God, Jon a pu$$y (well who can argue with that one, lol) and Mady as a demon seed.  I feel sorry for the poor kid.  She is just acting out and having tantrums like all children do.  Her tantrums are just highlighted because the show chooses to focus more on Mady’s issues and because Mady is obviously Kate’s least favorite.  I think that in these episodes from the new seasons Mady seems to be growing out of the tantrum-all-the-time phase. 

I said in a previous post about Jon and Kate that the problems that are in their marriage will not go away just because the cameras do.  I still feel that way, but when I stopped to actually think about the children I realized that the show stopping for good would definitely be the best thing for them.  Their parents are two selfish idiots who should never have been allowed to reproduce and ruin children’s lives.  However, the children have never been normal.  Since the twins were three and the sextuplets were born, they have had cameras in their homes filming every aspect of their lives.  The free vacations and other things that the children have had handed to them have made them accustomed to a certain lifestyle.  No matter how much money Jon and Kate have, they will not be able to maintain a lifestyle like the one that they have been living and that will be a rude awakening for everyone, but especially to the children.  The fact that people all over the country know and watch this family is a huge thing for a kid to come to grips with.  I’ve even read a posting and the comments on it said things like how they would love to drive to the school that the Gosselin kids go to and not approach them but just watch them.  Do these people even realize how absolutely sick and creepy that is?  These are children.  They didn’t ask to be on TV.  Their parents made that decision for them and to basically stalk six or eight children is disturbed.

One final note.  I’ve read comments from people defending Jon and Kate’s decision to document their lives in this way and defending all the trips and freebies that they get by saying that if they didn’t accept TLC’s offer to do a TV show, their kids wouldn’t have gotten to experience all those trips.  Sure they would have.  If they had two working parents, they would have to save up like every other family who have families to support.  Yes, supporting a family of ten is a huge struggle, but it’s not impossible.  They might only be able to take a family vacation once a year, and not a big, glamorous one, but it can be done.  They would have to save their money, like every other family, and stay in a less than desirable hotel, fly (if they don’t drive) coach, you get the picture.  Part of raising well adjusted children is by showing them that they have to work hard to get the finer things in life.  They’ve gotten these poor children used to a Hollywood lifestyle.  When that is gone, it will be a huge and unpleasant wake up call to them.

I Hate Hypocrites

Who doesn’t.  This post is about my grandmother.  Now I have written before about the issues between my grandmother and me.  I’ve come to the conclusion that the only possible way that I can live here without turning into a psycho is by just ignoring the woman, in every sense of the word.  I don’t speak to her, I don’t acknowledge her presence when we are near one another.  Nothing.  It’s the only way that I know how to deal with being around her without it affecting my mental health or giving me anxiety attacks.  

Because my grandmother talks in her sleep, which is really what brought everything to the forefront, my mother came up with the idea to close the door most of the way and have the fan on to drown out her talking.  So far it has worked beautifully.  I still prefer not having to close the door or use the fan, but I will go along with anything that drowns out that fucking talking.  Of course my mother is still obsessing about my grandmother.  It starts with little things.  The other day she was telling me that she was worried about keeping the door mostly closed because if grandma needed her in the middle of the night, then she wouldn’t be able to hear her.  I knew what she was driving at and I vetoed that right away.  I have spent enough sleepless nights because of that woman.  Fuck that.  The door stays the way it is.  Then she was saying that with the nights getting warmer, the door closed would make it that much hotter in our room. I told her that with the fan on it would be fine.  She still kept insisting so I dropped it.  The weather is still in the 60’s at night so she hasn’t opened the door yet, but I have spent enough sleepless nights because of my grandmother.  I will fight for that door.

The thing that drives me insane is that people think of me as being harsh, but my grandmother feels the same way about me.  Always has, even when I was a little girl.  I don’t know what her problem was with me, but she just didn’t like me.  I don’t know why.  I didn’t have an attitude when I was a little girl.  That came when I was an adult (tee-hee).  The only reason that I can think of is that she’s jealous of the close relationship that I have with my mother.  I don’t know why that should bother her because it’s not like we’re in our own world and excluding everybody.  She is the only person who acts this way.  But it’s probably because she is a very vain woman.  When I used to listen, she would tell anybody about how beautiful she was when she was younger and how men just used to fall in love with her, and how this one man refused to marry anyone but her and when she told him that she couldn’t she said that he told her that he would stay unmarried forever.  She reminds me of Mrs. Van Hopper from the book “Rebecca”.

Now this no talking rule isn’t written or spoken of, but it’s obvious just the same.  She is more than content to follow this rule at first, but then she’ll break it by trying to start a (meaningless) conversation with me.  It’s not for the reason that you are thinking of, which is that she is trying to form a new relationship with me or whatever.  No I know how her mind works.  She is doing it because she is trying to up her chances of getting into heaven.  She thinks if she doesn’t make nice with me that it’ll be a stain on her reputation.  That’s why I can’t stand hypocrites.  She still can’t stand me, but she’s trying to make nice in the name of religion.  It’s fake.  

I’m not ignoring her to be cruel.  It’s just the best solution for everyone.  It’s good for me because I don’t have anxiety attacks.  It’s good for my grandmother because she can’t stand me either.  It’s good for my mother because our dislike of each other puts her in the middle and that stresses her out.  It really is good for everyone because since I’ve started ignoring her, my dislike is starting to calm down.  It used to be that I would feel such anger, even if she wasn’t even in the room, that my body would tense up and start shaking.