Jon and Kate Plus 8. Official Thread!!

[mhsjax]

Put me in the Mady is a brat camp, I have 3 kids, and they don't have melt downs, they aren't perfect by any means but they all know that melt downs ARE NOT IN ANY WAY TOLERATED. Even now my kids who are 7 9 and 11 will comment on bratty meltdown behavior and say good thing they aren't with us, cause we wouldn't put up with that crap

 

[marathonmommy]

I don't know...if I see a child acting out in public, I'll call him/her a brat. Not to their face, of course, but this isn't to Mady's face either. Why is it ok to fawn over a kid but not ok to dislike one? Can't it go both ways?

Actually, I don't think it is okay for an adult to not like a child (IMHO) - especially one he/she doesn't know. You may not like the behavior the child exhibited, but to say you don't like the kid? You don't know her . . .

 

[madge]

we are seeing Mady in the way that TLC/Figure 8 wants us to see her.... there's a very good possibility she doesn't behave that way all the time. It's all edited for TV.

 

[barkley]

i see the national enquirer is running another anti gosselin article-this one focuses on paul peterson and his group's concerns.

 

[MichelleVW]

Put me in the Mady is a brat camp, I have 3 kids, and they don't have melt downs, they aren't perfect by any means but they all know that melt downs ARE NOT IN ANY WAY TOLERATED. Even now my kids who are 7 9 and 11 will comment on bratty meltdown behavior and say good thing they aren't with us, cause we wouldn't put up with that crap

That's nice that your kids don't melt down, but I have one that would have them every now and then when she was younger. Not in public, but she did have them, and no amount of telling her they weren't "tolerated" would have made a difference. If we had been on a tv show it would have looked like she was a "brat" but since we aren't on tv, all of our friends thought she was/is a lovely child.

we are seeing Mady in the way that TLC/Figure 8 wants us to see her.... there's a very good possibility she doesn't behave that way all the time. It's all edited for TV.

Exactly! We laugh all the time at how mean I could appear if I was edited a certain way.

 

[Yzerbear19]

What really annoys me the most is that when people are commenting on Mady's meltdowns they never mention Cara's. She has just as many meltdowns as Mady, but she is portrayed as the golden child. And it seems in the last couple of episodes they showed fewer of Mady's meltdowns.

 

[sha_lyn]

What really annoys me the most is that when people are commenting on Mady's meltdowns they never mention Cara's. She has just as many meltdowns as Mady, but she is portrayed as the golden child. And it seems in the last couple of episodes they showed fewer of Mady's meltdowns.

Just like Jon can be act like a horses hind end at times but the "Jon is a saint" club can't see past their love for him and their hate of Kate.


Oh and if the Cara falling on the skates is true....why blast Kate for not running afte her? Kate was in the driveway with 7 other children. Jon the saint OTOH was off on his own having fun. Yet Kate is the horrible mother for not running of and leaving her 7 other children to go tend to the 1 that Jon was suppose to be watching.

 

[EveDallas]

Just like Jon can be act like a horses hind end at times but the "Jon is a saint" club can't see past their love for him and their hate of Kate.


Oh and if the Cara falling on the skates is true....why blast Kate for not running afte her? Kate was in the driveway with 7 other children. Jon the saint OTOH was off on his own having fun. Yet Kate is the horrible mother for not running of and leaving her 7 other children to go tend to the 1 that Jon was suppose to be watching.

Very good point! Of course, to the people who think Kate is a she-demon is won't make a difference.

 

[madge]

Oh and if the Cara falling on the skates is true....why blast Kate for not running afte her? Kate was in the driveway with 7 other children. Jon the saint OTOH was off on his own having fun. Yet Kate is the horrible mother for not running of and leaving her 7 other children to go tend to the 1 that Jon was suppose to be watching.

I'm a critic of both, for different reasons - if that report is true. If they were filming, the kids wouldn't have been alone, enabling Kate to help Cara. Jon ABSOLUTELY should have turned around to help. If the accident was as bad as all that, having both parents there would be helpful ... especially since Kate is a nurse.

 

[madge]

In looking at the link about the accident ... there's a link to this blog:

http://pennmommyfortruth.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-09-15T00:49:00-07:00&max-results=7

I didn't bother to read the comments posted, only the blogs. I think this blogs may be as close to something related to the truth as we've seen.

 

[rileyroosmom]

I've been a long time lurker of this thread. Never wanted to comment until now.

I have a 7 year old daughter who can act like Mady a lot of the time. I was wondering if anyone has considered that Mady may be highly intelligent? My daughter is, and is in the gifted and talented program at school. She will have these meltdowns that I call her "Jeckyle and Hyde" moments. Her teacher tells me this can be common in highly intelligent children. They are always striving for perfection and when it's not achieved, they meltdown. They tend to also be very hard on themselves. I know this is the case for my daughter. When she goes into full mode, the best thing to do is to ignore it.

I know it has been mentioned by Kate that Mady is not as athletic as Cara, but that she is smarter in school than her sister. Maybe Mady is gifted. If she is fighting for perfection, that must be hard to achieve with 6 younger siblings, a sister the same age as well as a tv crew to contend with.

Just thought I'd share my thoughts. And please, no matter what Mady's issues are, please remember that she is just a little girl. The things being said by some people in this thread are just horrible.

 

[AlleyKat]

I've been a long time lurker of this thread. Never wanted to comment until now.

I was wondering if anyone has considered that Mady may be highly intelligent?

BINGO!

I think most of Mady's "frustration" comes from unchallenged genius.

One of my nieces displayed the same behavior at that age. Said niece graduated valedictorian of her high school, then graduated from Brown University.

 

[emer95]

It's an interesting theory, but I remember watching Mady read aloud during an episode (was it the one where they were reading clues for a game?) and I was struck by what a difficult time she had reading the cards. I'm a teacher, and my immediate thought was that I'd like to see Mady get help with phonics. However, that was one isolated observation and it could mean absolutely nothing.

 

[ColleenG]

Gosselins Without Pity. If you're a JK8 fan, I'd think long and hard about checking it out. It's a pretty harsh blog.

Google "Truth Breeds Hatred" and that should take you to Aunt Jodi's sister's blog, which explains their fallout.

Thanks for posting Jodi's sister's blog. I've decided not to look at GWoP. After reading Jodi's sis's blog it has put a lot of things in a new light. I've always wondered who was watching the kids when they did all their travelling to do speaking engagements.

My sister read some where that they get $65K per episode. If they are getting that much plus churches paying their travel expenses, I don't think they should be taking the "love offerings" or if they do they should donate them to a worthy charity.

I know Kate always seemed to be a control freak, but I always chalked it up to if you have 8 kids you probably have to be just to maintain some kind of order in your home. That's just mean what she did to Jodi and not fair to the kids to take away their aunt and cousins. I wish Jodi was my sister-in-law. If DH's sister babysits my kids something is trashed (ie clogged toilet, Christmas tree knocked over), and she just parks her big fat behind on the couch and watches some totally non-child friendly movie and sends the kids off to the basement leaving her daughter to rule over my kids. Let's just say other family members who we don't see very often have realized what a b***h my niece can be. And she's only 8. Sorry about the rant. Enough about our family drama.

I will definately watch the show with less rosey glasses. But those kids are so darn cute.

 

[Yzerbear19]

It's an interesting theory, but I remember watching Mady read aloud during an episode (was it the one where they were reading clues for a game?) and I was struck by what a difficult time she had reading the cards. I'm a teacher, and my immediate thought was that I'd like to see Mady get help with phonics. However, that was one isolated observation and it could mean absolutely nothing.

During that episode I thought Kate said that the cards weren't written in the neatest handwriting, which could be why Mady was having some difficulty.

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

And please, no matter what Mady's issues are, please remember that she is just a little girl. The things being said by some people in this thread are just horrible.

My point, exactly!

 

[allison443]

I'll tell you what bugs me, though, is when people pick on Mady. She's a kid!! Granted she's a little more dramatic than the others, but that doesn't warrant grown-up women (I'm assuming most JK8 viewers/posters are female) verbally (type-ally?? ) attacking a child.

Not on this thread that I can recall, but I've seen posts that say "I love all the kids except Mady, she's horrible." Bad, bad, bad. Shame on those people.

I think part of the reason is because the family is on a tv show. People see them as tv characters, like someone would say oh, I love McDreamy and I hate Izzy (to use examples from Grey's Anatomy). Also, think of reality shows like "The Amazing Race" or "Survivor"-viewers pick a favorite and a least favorite and say they love or hate them.
Unfortunately just like some people (not on this thread ) go overboard with fawning over the Gosselins, some people react negatively. To me it comes back to the parents' decision to put their kids "out there" and actually make them into public figures. I find a lot of the obsessive fans downright creepy (again NOT ON THE DISBOARDS) but I have to believe that Jon and Kate are aware of that and have made a decision that the trade off is worth it.
The real irony to me (which I think I might have posted) was exemplified by Kate putting masking tape over the kids' names on their backpacks before they went to the airport for the Utah trip. She said it was so strangers won't know their names. Lady, you have got to be kidding me. Has she ever googled her kids' names on the internet?

 

[Family Fun Mom]

I think part of the reason is because the family is on a tv show. People see them as tv characters, like someone would say oh, I love McDreamy and I hate Izzy (to use examples from Grey's Anatomy). Also, think of reality shows like "The Amazing Race" or "Survivor"-viewers pick a favorite and a least favorite and say they love or hate them.
Unfortunately just like some people (not on this thread ) go overboard with fawning over the Gosselins, some people react negatively. To me it comes back to the parents' decision to put their kids "out there" and actually make them into public figures. I find a lot of the obsessive fans downright creepy (again NOT ON THE DISBOARDS) but I have to believe that Jon and Kate are aware of that and have made a decision that the trade off is worth it.
The real irony to me (which I think I might have posted) was exemplified by Kate putting masking tape over the kids' names on their backpacks before they went to the airport for the Utah trip. She said it was so strangers won't know their names. Lady, you have got to be kidding me. Has she ever googled her kids' names on the internet?

The more I read, the more I am convinced that this show needs to be yanked off the air. Can you imagine growing up this way? I know normal is a relative term, but these kids do not stand a chance at any type of normalcy if this show continues. They made their money, it's time to pull out.

 

[barkley]

It's an interesting theory, but I remember watching Mady read aloud during an episode (was it the one where they were reading clues for a game?) and I was struck by what a difficult time she had reading the cards. I'm a teacher, and my immediate thought was that I'd like to see Mady get help with phonics. However, that was one isolated observation and it could mean absolutely nothing.

i don't know what age you teach but i taught the younger grades and maddie just reminds me so much of kids that have those 'moments' of melt down when they are just physcialy and emotionaly exhausted. i saw it allot with kids that were (in my opinion) very overextended with activities and extracurriculars-they held it together best they could but then the slightest little thing could just set them off, could be an angry meltdown/could be a sobbing, hyperventalating collapse. in many ways i understood it more after i experienced my first pregnancy and general exhaustion combined with surging hormones resulted in the same effect (dh got to where he made a mad dash to change the channel if a sappy hallmark card commercial came on-he KNEW those could be an easy trigger).

i look at how these kids have to always 'be on' during filming-running from this activity to the next, always getting into or out of the van, preparing or going on this trip or that-it's exhausting watching it. even if this is just (as some say) occuring only 3 days a week-combine that with attending school, doing homework (and god knows most kids have tons these days), their regular extracurriculars (i'm assuming they still take their music lessons which would entail daily practice as well, and both the twins were said to be taking kids cooking classes), church attendance (did'nt j&k say their current church is over an hour's drive away-so that can eat up the better part of a sunday getting there/getting back and attending)....it all seems like a very full plate for the twins to be juggling (i tend to think the younger kids are more adept at it because they've been raised since birth in this manner). i think the whole situation with being filmed so much has to be a very exhausting process-yes, we are seeing edit portions, but we're also not seeing all the time that those kids likely spend in makeup chairs being prepped for filming (if they are using professional lighting they would be using at least minimal makeup on everyone or they would bleach out), the number of takes it requires for each of those cute introductions of 'tonight on jon and kate plus eight'-or what's become the more frequent couch conversations with the kids.
it take a WHOLE lot of filming (esp of kids) to get 30 minutes of usable footage.

 

[marathonmommy]

I think part of the reason is because the family is on a tv show. People see them as tv characters, like someone would say oh, I love McDreamy and I hate Izzy (to use examples from Grey's Anatomy). Also, think of reality shows like "The Amazing Race" or "Survivor"-viewers pick a favorite and a least favorite and say they love or hate them.

I guess, to me, the crucial difference if Mady is a CHILD, and the others are not. For grown women to say they don't like a child, when they don't even know her, is absurd.