Five Bedrooms? Really, Jon and Kate?

There has been a lot of controversy lately involving reality T.V. stars Jon and Kate Gosselin, who are the stars of TLC's Jon and Kate Plus Eight, which follows their life with twins and sextuplets. The controversies range from the mysterious disappearance of Aunt Jodi from the show, the idea that the couple are exploiting their children for monetary gain, and more recently, Jon's questionable partying with college girls. There is a growing backlash against Jon and Kate both, and the heart of that movement is on the Internet. While the show was once (in theory) about an average family struggling with eight children, whether you are a fan or not, that is not what the show is about anymore. Every episode is about a new trip or another freebie that the couple has received, and each episode is stuffed full of obvious product placement. But there are many articles that cover these topics, supposed scandals, and the public's souring opinion. I can't really say anything different than many other writers have on this general topic.

I started out as a fan of the show. I would DVR all the episodes, and put them on while I folded laundry, cooked dinner, or worked on anything else. The children were adorable, and although Kate bothered me a bit in the beginning, I could forgive most of her behavior because of stress. I ended up without a DVR, and stopped watching the show as regularly, although I occasionally kept up with news on the internet about them. I wasn't really watching the show at all anymore when I read the announcement that Jon and Kate had just purchased a 1.3 million dollar estate in Wernersville, Pennsylvania. I saw calls for the show to end, because Jon and Kate were no longer the average family they'd claimed to be when the show started. I was a little puzzled with this reaction, because if I had eight children and the money to do so, I would certainly purchase a million dollar home and estate! But I started reading more and more on the internet, and seeing the show again after many months, the change was striking. Kate had devolved from harried, type-A mother to a self-centered celebrity, and Jon was more henpecked than ever. Instead of saving up money for Christmas or once-a-year clothes shopping trips for Jon and Kate, they are going skiing, getting spa treatments and appearing on Oprah. And I found out that their new mansion only has five bedrooms. This is a guess, because it's hard to find information on the new home, gathered from Jon and Kate's mention of the new sleeping arrangements. Hannah gets a bedroom to herself, the boys share a room, Cara and Mady share a room, and Alexis and Leah share a room. Add into that Jon and Kate's bedroom, and that is five.

How do you buy a million dollar home, and not even buy one with enough rooms for all eight of your children? This really confuses me, because while a huge estate, pools, and a big entry way might be nice and give you more space for the children, why not give them a space of their very own? And if you decide that one child gets a room to themselves, you should give every child a room of their own if you have the financial ability to do so, and Jon and Kate obviously do.

Down the street from my house is a new subdivision that my husband and I have toured out of curiosity. It has homes from the $300s to the $500s, and one of the homes we toured there had five bedrooms, and a lot of open area on the second story that we were told we could add more rooms to, like an entertainment room, another bedroom, or an office if we had our house built. The house was very nice and spacious, and another bedroom or two could potentially be added with all the open space in the house. So, in theory, a 400,000 house could have seven bedrooms, almost enough for all of their children, while a million dollar mansion could not? According to a listing of their old house (the listing is now gone), the house they were living in had five bedrooms and was listed at $350,000. If you're doing it for your family, why move sideways when it comes to number of bedrooms?

It seems to me that they weren't really thinking about their family when they chose that particular house. This is just a personal opinion, of course, but again, why not buy a mansion with eight or nine bedrooms? I'm no real estate expert, but I'm sure you could find one somewhere. And if not, Jon and Kate certainly have the resources to build one of their own, and they even talked about this on the show. This is even worse, considering how the house they owned before was so much more than many people would be able to afford over their entire lives, and some of them have a comparable number of children. Kate also complains endlessly about what is wrong with the house, the decorating, and the work it takes. Here they had an opportunity to do something wonderful for their eight children, give them bedrooms that had doors that could be shut to their siblings, and more importantly, to the film crews. They claim that there is a house rule that no one can go into their bedroom, but won't give the same chance to their children. They are blessed with a steady, hefty income when many people are unemployed. But they didn't take this opportunity, and they can only complain about what isn't perfect about their mansion.

Jon and Kate need to step back for a moment, and see that they have a wonderful house that the majority of their viewers will never have and eight adorable children that need a family, not a mansion, expensive toys or exotic vacations. Jon and Kate should remember where they came from, and think about their children, not the size of their pocketbooks or the prestige of their mansion and their estate. And Kate, before you extend your insufficient laundry room, maybe you should see if there is anything else you can remodel to give your other seven children the privacy that you have given to Hannah.