Posted on 11/17/2008 12:17:58 PM PST by buccaneer81
‘Jon & Kate’ are doing their children no favors By Mark A. Perigard
TLC’s favorite fertile couple renews their vows tonight.
But this wedding may have some viewers raising objections.
As the episode opens, the Gosselin clan - parents Jon and Kate, twins Mady and Cara and the 4-year-old sextuplets - are vacationing in Maui.
The parents hammer out a renewal ceremony. The girls go for pedicures. Jon meets with relatives he hasn’t seen in several years.
Even by “Jon & Kate” standards, it makes for a slim show.
Why do the couple feel the urgent need to renew their vows after only nine years of marriage? Kate tells the camera that she wants her kids to know that while not all moms and dads stay together, she and Jon are forever.
As the ceremony later demonstrates, not even the oldest girls understand the ceremony’s significance, and the youngest surely will forget it.
This cynic is forced to conclude the “wedding event” is a way to capitalize on a free vacation in Maui.
“Jon & Kate” has become increasingly about the freebies the Pennsylvania family can gather. The visits to increasingly far-flung destinations are nothing more than travel infomercials, with the kids as adorable props. Jon’s morning on a golf course here is a chore to the eyes, but he dutifully plugs the management in his armchair confessional.
If we’re rewarding people on the basis of fertility, shouldn’t the prizes go to the least blessed?
Yes, it’s kind of horrible the way Kate talks to Jon as if he’s one of the 4-year-olds.
As he samples wedding cakes tonight, Kate tells the wedding planner, “I’ll try what he decides. And then I’ll argue, if he decides wrong.”
But as my favorite relationship coach - that would be Judge Judy - would say, he picked her. Save your concern for the children.
Mady, for example, almost has a meltdown when her mother expects her to be her maid of honor. Is she just another reality show witch? No, she’s just an 8-year-old, having a perfectly normal moment for a child - that is being broadcast to millions of homes.
The younger kids have been trailed by cameras for almost their entire lives. What does that do to a child’s perception of the world and his or her importance in it?
The kids might not mind the cameras following them now, but they’ll probably feel differently in about 10 years when their high school classmates can download footage of their potty training to their iPods.
Imagine having all your worst moments from childhood available to anyone who wanted to see them for the rest of your life.
That’s what the Gosselin children face.
Maybe it’s time for Jon and Kate to drive the cameras out of the home for some quality family time.
Freak shows have been lucrative enterprises for hundreds of years.
Why is this anybody’s business?
Huh? Look over my 10000 posts and tell me where I've ever bashed Christians.
And Kate is an absolute "witch" when it comes to dealing with her husband.
My thing is that if you look at the difference between the Gosselins (and I’ll admit, I don’t watch the show much) and the famlies you see on TLC with 17 or 18 kids, it seems like there’s a world of difference. Something tells me that if those 17 kid parents had had trouble conceiving, they wouldn’t have run out to get fertility treatments, but would have ended up with large families of adopted kids. And you won’t see the dads from those families of 17 getting hair plugs.
The only family show I really like on TLC is Little People Big World.
I think they have done a great job raising their children and living life as normally as possible. You can tell those kids are good eggs and in turn, must have had good parents raising them.
Exploit your kids on national TV, look like grifters and act (in Kate's case) like a prima donna and people are going to talk.
DANG!!Sounds like sour grapes to me...I FOR ONE like the show!! IF THEY want to renew their vows it’s their business. They were told by their doctor of a percture called selection abortion but they refused and had ALL their babies...KUDOS AND GOD BLESS THEM and my the LORD continue to give them more!!
Excellent points.
..I just didn't expect it to happen so quickly, and I sure didn't expect Jon & Kate to be the first casualty.
Freepers, don't be fooled...
..this is just the first volley towards Christian families.
And I just bet the sanctimonious writer has said a few words to his spouse (IF he has one) that he wishes he could take back.
Most married adults do!
You must not watch it a lot. The older boys get lousy grades and break the law. I believe the father was arrested last year for DUI.
That's good (very, very good that they didn't abort!) but check out post 18. That "one more child" could have been theirs, and Kate wouldn't be all frustrated now.
OOPS..meant..”procedure” instead of “percture”
It tells me that the producers are just looking for another story? line. Better to stick with everyday laughing,crying and playing.
Puhleeze.
Thank you.
No I am so serious...!!!!
With so few options on TV, Jon & Kate have a family program that enforces a positive Christian family. The popularity of the show has driven cynical liberals to bash them. All the late-nighters have taken a whack at them, Daily Show, Talk Soup, etc.
It’s the same thing they did to Little People Big World.
I agree. It has always bothered me, the way Kate speaks to Jon. She comes across like a control-freak, and seems to wear the pants in that family. It is a bit irrevant and disrespectful for a Christian wife to do. I watch that show all the time and did not know they say they are Christians. I would not have thought so, actually.
It is the Duggar family on the same channel (with the 17+ children) who have the opportunity to share their Christian faith often on their program, but the cameras seem to try to paint them as freaks with the rules and discipline and values they have.
I totally agree with you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what they are doing. You can tell they love their children very much. If people don’t like it don’t watch. I get really tired of people who always want to find fault with what somebody else is doing instead of looking at themselves.
Do most married adults slap their spouse's face? I sure hope not, but don't call Kate on it; she's such a saint.
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