Gosselins Go Skiing: Jon and Kate Plus Eight

Gosselins Go Skiing! was an eagerly anticipated TV program at our house. Last week, we saw the Gosselin family (Jon, Kate, their 7-year-old twins and their 3-year-old sextuplets) flying to Park City, Utah, for a ski vacation. The plane flight was delayed and chaos ensued with the kids and Kate melting down.

This week, the Gosselins are settled into a HUGE beautiful house. The first thing that happens is that Kate spends the first night sick - throwing up, no energy. She later attributes this to the altitude change (they are from Pennsylvania). Despite feeling bad, Kate and her friend Beth who has come along take off for the spa the first day. Jon and all eight kids go to "ski school". The producers of the show frequently show Kate and Beth relaxing at the spa, and on the other side of the screen show Jon struggling with all the kids, several of whom are seemingly crying at any given time.

The kids do ski school, and although Cara excels, most of the others don't seem so enthusiastic. The next day, the kids get to choose whether or not to ski. Four choose to, and the other four stay at the house with Kate and Beth. Kate is shown doing laundry, and saying that she is perfectly happy doing this. She says frequently throughout the show how much she dislikes the outdoors, which seems sad considering that that is the POINT of this vacation, one would think.

We then see Jon with the kids outside, where Cara is continuing to do well.

Jon and Kate go out to dinner at a fancy-schmancy Asian restaurant, while we are shown the chaos back at the house where Beth and another friend are watching all the kids. Jon and Kate do remember to bring some desserts back to the helpers, and presumeably this is enough to keep them happy.

One theme of the show seemed to be Mady's difficult behavior. She is shown having some meltdowns and frequent bad attitudes. The producer once asks her what she liked most about the trip, and she replies, "Nothing, really". She then runs upstairs and slams the door. On an internet board I frequent, many people come down very hard on Jon and Kate, insinuating that they are responsible for Mady's poor behavior. I might be tempted to agree, but one of my three girls is VERY similar to Mady in attitude - contrary, ornery, you name it. As I observe my three children, I really think that a lot of personality is inborn and there is not a lot a parent can do to change it. This is what I observe in Mady.

Throughout the five day trip, we see Jon snowboarding several times - an activity he says he has done since childhood and loves. I don't know a thing about snowboarding, but Jon appears to be pretty good and you can tell he really enjoys it. Snowboarding is the happiest I've ever seen him on this show, and watching his joy made me wish he could get the opportunity to snowboard more often.

The group goes ice skating one day, and the little kids are cute skating around with the aid of "walkers". Kate is extremely uncomfortable skating (I don't think she has ever skated before), and really doesn't seem to enjoy the vacation much on its own merits. She is shown outside ONCE, and the only way I recognized her was because of her coat (her face was totally covered with ski gear). She frequently mentions though wanting to do everything for her kids that she can. Since this trip was offered to them - she wants to take it. I'm not sure if this is really wise or not. At least from the footage shown, I think most of the kids would have preferred being home most of the trip. And I doubt that the sextuplets will retain any of the "memories" Kate is so anxious to create. Still, I applaud her motives.

The last day of the trip, Aunt Jodi comes to help the group go home. I am constantly amazed at all the help Jon and Kate get from relatives and friends. I hope they appreciate it, and they do seem to.

Another thought as I watched the show was the pull between feeling envy (the house, lots of clothes/ski equipment, etc were all donated) that so much was given to this family, and pleasure in the fact that they were able to go. I understand that such a trip would be prohibitively expensive to almost anyone with that many kids, yet still - I would like my family to get to do that too!

As the episode wrapped up, I found myself wondering where the Gosselins would travel next. We've seen Disney World, we've now seen skiing - maybe Gosselins do Europe?!