Admittedly, I have not watched a lot of “Jon & Kate Plus 8.” I do, however, watch “What Not To Wear” on TLC. And as anyone who watches any show on TLC knows, you can pretty much follow them all through the promos they run. In any given hour of WNTW, I get caught up on Jon & Kate, American Choppers, Little People Big World, Say Yes To The Dress, and Miami/LA Ink. And who could miss the increasing tabloid obsession with the Gosselins? I freely confess that I watched the season premier of “J&K+8″ along with zillions of other people, and have kept on watching as their relationship deteriorated, on screen and off. Now they’re apparently done with each other, the show is up in the air, and Kate Gosselin is being eviscerated in the media. Because of course, it’s all her fault.
Most of what I’ve heard from people who don’t “watch” the show but still seem to have an opinion, and from the screaming tabloid headlines that take great pains to show Kate Gosselin in the most unflattering light possible, is that she drove him away with her shrewish ways. She’s a control freak. She treats him like a child. She’s contemptuous of him. She slept with her security guard. And the hits just keep on coming.
While I can’t claim to have any inside knowledge of their relationship, I know a thing or two about being a type-A, surprise-adverse, schedule-obsessed, working wife and mother in the year 2009. I have also been able to get a pretty good handle on poor, beaten-down, hen-pecked Jon’s personality. Why? Because he strikes me as being an extreme version of my own laid back, indecisive, oftentimes-scatterbrained husband. Who I love dearly, don’t get me wrong. His personality traits are a good foil to mine.
So, let’s run down the circumstances here. This woman has eight children. EIGHT. CHILDREN.
EIGHT.
So she has eight children, a camera crew following them around, and a husband who – essentially – isn’t good for much in the way of help, support, or any kind of meaningful partnership. She has to do it pretty much on her own. I have one child. ONE. And on some days, I can barely remember my own name, much less the groceries, laundry, lunches, soccer practice, feeding the cat, going to work, blahblahblah. Do I become a military general at times? You bet your ass I do. Do I treat my husband like an infant, worthy only of contempt and frustration? Not out loud, but let’s just say if some of the movies in my head had a Hollywood premier, I wouldn’t let him on the red carpet. Do I become a bossy bitch when I don’t get my way? Um … yep. So sue me. The only difference between me and Kate Gosselin is that I don’t have to do it all on TV.
Call me naive, but when the promo came out hinting at a “big announcement” on their last show, I was really hoping they were going to announce an indefinite hiatus for “J&K+8″ so they could work on their relationship. Alas, it’s not to be. I feel awful for Kate, who will now still have to do everything for those children and, for a few days a week, be forced to sleep away from her own house so Jon can have some playtime. Jon, however, I have no sympathy for. I think he’s an immature ass who has no impulse control and makes spectacularly bad decisions about his personal life. Even with eight kids, Kate is better off without him.
