Do you watch Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC?  I have been watching the show for the last few years, and to say that I’m upset about the outcome is an understatement.  Obviously, the show has impacted their marriage – we can’t forget Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, can we? – but the media has really turned their family into a mockery.  I feel bad for both parents (and especially for the kids).  What was shown on television was Kate being demanding, controlling, and striving for everything to be done her way.  Is that how it was 100% of the time?  Probably not.  But that is how she was portrayed.  Jon should not have been treated the way he was on the show, but we don’t know what happened the rest of the time, and I really don’t think it’s far for America to judge as if they know this family intimately.  I feel bad for Kate for the same reason – she was portrayed one way on the show, and that was as a demanding, loud, controlling mother.  But how was she off-camera?  I hate how America just assumes and judges her for it.  I don’t agree with her behavior on-camera, but that doesn’t mean I think she acts like that all the time.  With the power of editing, you can portray anyone in a positive or negative light.

By the end of the hour long episode Monday night, I was crying.  Crying for a few reasons.  One, you could tell that Kate especially was having such a hard time, and I hate to see people that way.  It seems that Jon is less outwardly emotional, but you could tell he wasn’t happy either.  Two, I remember being the 8 year old, sitting at the dining room table and being told, “Mommy and Daddy can’t live together anymore.”  Memories of my parents’ divorce came flooding back, which is the main reason why I cried.  And lastly, I cried because I am afraid of the same outcome when I have children.  Granted, we are going to have half as many kids as the Gosselins at the most, but the thought is still in my mind.  I know I will never be the one to ask for a divorce, but we cannot guarantee that things will change once kids are involved.  We have both promised each other that we will not turn to divorce and that we will work through our problems to the best of the ability.  The fear is still there, though, for me.

Mostly, I feel so sorry for the Gosselin children, who for the rest of their lives will be prone to paparazzi and invasion of privacy.  They will forever be known FIRST as the kids who were on television for the first five years of their lives; the kids with parents whose divorce unfolded on TV and in tabloids, etc.  It is hard enough to realize that your parents are not staying together (and I highly doubt the kids understand that just yet, but they will in time), let alone all the other things that will happen to them.  With the discontinuation of filming of Jon & Kate Plus 8 I am hoping that the parents really focus on the kids, keep themselves out of the spotlight, and help them cope with the divorce.

I hope that the parents have planned ahead in the event that something happen to them.  No doubt Jon and Kate Gosselin have life insurance.  I wonder if they received it through TLC or if they got an online life insurance quote when the babies were born.