Kitchen Table Blogs
Name: Jeanne Wieland
Kids: daughter, age 13; son, age 10
Works: editor, MilwaukeeMoms.com
Favorite part about being a mom: Built up my tolerance for bodily fluids of all sorts.
Least favorite part about being a mom: Constantly telling my kids to turn off the TV.
Famous for: Not caring who started it.
I'm not proud of it, but I watched "Jon & Kate Plus 8" again last night. It truly is the train wreck that you can't stop looking at, but here's the really gross part -- the people who are responsible for the train wreck, the people whose bodies are literally in the wreckage, are making sure that it lasts and lasts.
On top of that, they're selling sponsorships for the train wreck to ensure that they get paid for their efforts to keep it going, all the while dressing their kids in matching outfits and trying to dress it up as something other than what it is.
If you watched last night's episode, you now know that Jon and Kate Gosselin are on their way to divorce court. No big surprise there.
What is a surprise is that they've decided to keep their show. They're going to alternate who stays in the house with the kids and keep those cameras rolling.
It is shocking that neither one of the players in this nasty reality drama can see it for what it is. A show that was once cute and charming and oh-my-gosh-how-do-they-do-it is now something entirely different.
Every week the show is now one long commercial for something else -- Orange County Choppers, Food Network's "Ace of Cakes," Emeril Lagasee, and last night's episode sponsor, Kids Crooked Houses. In case you never heard of Kids Crooked Houses, you will now. Custom-built playhouses for kids -- I don't even want to know what they cost.
Every week the money truck backs up to this house in one form or another, the kids shriek with delight at their new puppies or toys or bikes or whatever while Jon and Kate edge around each other and try to make nice with whoever is giving them the stuff this time.
Their now solo confessionals to the camera include plenty of references to how the show is for the kids, the stuff is for the kids, they're "there" for their kids.
You would think that parents who claim to be all about their kids would realize that filming the uncomfortable unraveling of their marriage for entertainment purposes, with the kids as the cute distraction sold to the highest bidder, is actually disgusting.
It's true that their kids are getting a lot of things and experiences that they would never, ever have without this show. But should you put your family on display -- painful warts and all -- just to ensure that you stay on the receiving end of all that stuff?
In last night's episode, the kids got brand-new Crooked Houses designed just for them. The unfortunate thing is that they're already living in one, designed by the parents who claim to have their best interests at heart.
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