Jon and Kate Plus 8

I read the article published by Tammy G. about Kate Gosselin from Jon and Kate plus eight. I read it and agreed with some minor parts of her article, but I was just appalled by other parts. I respect her opinion and I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so I decided to make my voice heard and to voice my own opinion on the subject of Kate Gosselin.

I have watched the show Jon and Kate Plus Eight many, many times. I really enjoy the show. When I was on aol.com an ad about Kate caught my eye, so I decided to read it and see what it was about. When I read the article written about Kate by Tammy G., I was determined to get my opinion out there as well so that people know that not everyone thinks the same way.

The next issue that I feel needs to be addressed is that the author of the article I read seems to be talking for Jon an awful lot. In the article it constantly says that Jon shouldn't put up with this, Jon doesn't deserve this, Jon should do this, Jon should do that. Jon is a thirty-year old man, I think that he can talk for himself. If he doesn't like the way Kate treats him or their eight children, he can step up, and take the responsibilities that come with fatherhood and marriage.

There is a particular paragraph in this article that I would really like to point out. It is the second to last paragraph, and it talks about how Jon and Kate travel around and speak at churches. It also says at one point, and I qoute, that "They claim to be good Christians, but Kate hardly acts like a good Christian the way she criticized and scolds her husband in a public manner let alone at all." I am all for letting someone voice their opinion, but when it comes to criticizing someone's religion, I feel that a fine line has been crossed. I myself have grown up as a Roman Catholic, and I have had many a time when people have criticized me for being Catholic. That hurts a lot. If nothing that I right in the article gets through to my readers, one thing that I want to make clear is that there is a fine line between voicing your opinion, and criticizing someone about their way of lifestyle. That is a line that I feel should not be crossed whatsoever.

The next thing that I would like to point out is the place in the article where it says that the Churches should be spending their money on a family like the Duggars instead of the Gosselins. I, personally have seen the episode of the show Kids by the Dozen where the show the Duggars. I agree that the Duggars are a patient, loving, kind, and respectful family. I think that a Church would do great to have a family such as them come and speak, but I don't think that we should be trying to tell the Churches how to spend their money, and who to spend it on. That's just not right.

My final issue to point out is that where it says that "Discovery has effectively turned and endearing show about twins and sextuplets into a spectacle highlighting Kate's inability to hands the daily stress of the children, her nonsensical hang-ups, and her tumultuous relationship with her husband. I really don't think for one, that you can say that that is what this show has turned into. If the producers of the show found it that way, they would either change the title to Kate's Insanity, or Kate Gosselin is a Monster. Better yet, they would probably just take the show off of the air. I also don't that you can say that the Discovery network turned the show into something awful like that.(though, I personally don't think that it is that awful). If a television show turns into something completely different because of it's characters, you can hardly blame the station.

In my conclusion, I would just like to say that Kate Gosselin is not a monsterous beast that abuses her children like the article I read may or may not have displayed. I just want it to me known that she is a loving wife and mother who cares for her family dearly. Yes, Kate Gosselin has her flaws, but so do all of us. I just really don't wan this show to go off the air either, because I, and most likely many more people, would be very sad and angry. I just want it to be known that a perfectly good tv show should not be taken off the air because one of the 'cast' members has some noticeable flaws.

Now, when I watch the show Jon and Kate Plus Eight I will admit that I find some of Kate's behavior unacceptable such as the infamous Toys 'R Us episode. I agree that Kate was out of line big time when she screamed across the store to get Jon's attention. She could have handled that differently and I think that she probably should have. But, as I listen to the comments made in the article that I read, I can't help but think that Kate is being looked at by thousands, maybe millions of people as a monster. When I watch the show I see a mother that loves her children and a wife that loves her husband. I just don't think that Kate should be judged and looked upon by many as some kind of psycho maniac monster that should be seeing a psychiatrist or a therapist. The way that article talked about how 'abusive' Kate is, someone who has not seen the show may read that article and go "Wow, Kate Gosselin is abusive?" I didn't know that. "Does she physically abuse her husband and children? Why, that's awful." I know very well that if I had not seen the show before reading the article that I did I would get the impression that Kate hits her husband hard, like throws punches and things. Then I'd think, does she do this to her kids too? But luckily I have seen the show and I do agree that Kate is verbally abusive sometimes. As for her being physically abusive, yes she slaps her husband from time to time, but you can always tell that it's nothing awful to worry about. I remember an episode when Jon and Kate looked back on favorite moments, and they talked about Kate slapping Jon a lot. They both were able to joke about it, especially Jon. Now that isn't abuse that needs therapy, that is just a playful action. Here's another example, how many times have you heard of parents spanking their children when they misbehave? Just because parents spank their children, doesn't mean that the parents are abusive and don't love their children. As another example here, I'll take the episode where Jon takes Kate shopping for a new wardrobe. During the interview part of that episode Jon and Kate discuss how much they like spending time with each other, away from their kids. Kate says that she 100% of the time loves to spend time alone with Jon, know if that's not a wife who loves her husband I don't know what is.

The next issue is where the article said that Kate shouldn't be using the fact that she has eight kids as an excuse for her behavior towards Jon. I agree somewhat with that statement. We have to really see though that Kate does have eight children, six of them being just three years old. That has to be tough on anybody. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but there is a tv commercial for hamburger helper. The idea of the commercial is to depict how easy hamburger helper is to make and how it doesn't take up much time. The mother of the family on the commercial says something like it is hard to keep up after one kid, but keeping up with two kids is really moving. I agree that it can be stressful mothering two kids, but when I see that commercial I always think back to Kate Gosselin and say to myself, what would Kate say if she saw this commercial? I don't want to put words in her mouth, but I imagine that she'd say something on the order of two kids is nothing compared to eight or you should try mothering eight kids sometime. Kate can use the fact that she has eight kids as an excuse for her stress level for SOME of her yelling. I can probably safely say that the person who wrote the article that I read didn't have eight kids.

Another thing that the article said was that it's possible that Kate grew up with verbally abusive or over protective or uptight or over obsessed parents. I believe that that is extremely possible that that is where some of Kate's issues come from. I recall the episode where the Gosselin twins, Mady and Cara, take violin and piano lessons. Kate recalls her childhood and says that she, like Mady, played the violin when she was a kid. Kate also said that she didn't like it much because her mother used to tell her that after school she couldn't play with her siblings and friends until she had practiced the violin for one hour straight. Now that is an uptight and over obsessive mother. Kate then went on to say that when her mother made her practice so much she grew to unlike violin lessons. She said that she would not make Mady and Cara practice if they didn't want to practice. I liked when she said that. Later in the episode Mady said that she was going to practice her violin every single day. Now, I don't know if she actually did, but she was willing to commit to that. Now, the article I read said that uptight parents will mostly have uptight children. I look at Kate and her mother and I say, that may have been what happened. Then I look at Kate and her children, Mady and Cara especially, and say that most definately did not happen.

It was said in the article that Kate isn't the only one in the family with faults. It mentioned that Jon had faults as well. I say that the article was too busy criticizing Kate and didn't have time to talk about the flaws of Jon Gosselin. When the article talked about the episode where Kate turned to a child and said, your Daddy doesn't love you, I was just appalled. I hadn't seen that specific episode, but it made me think of an episode that I had seen. In this episode Jon was dressing the sextuplets while Kate was doing Alexis, Leah, and Hannah's hair. I don't recall what exactly was said, but Kate said something to Jon and Jon replied with the phrase, "Kate, when are you going to remove the stick?" I know the little three year olds most likely didn't know what that meant, but I still couldn't believe that Jon said that in from the the little ones. I recall Jon apologizing later for that incident, just as I recall Kate apologizing for the Toys 'R Us incident. In the article I read, it was said that after Jon confronted Kate about that moment Kate just said "Oh, did I." That is false. Kate gave Jon a heart-felt apology, and that needs to be noted.