They lost me at the dogs
I didn’t watch Jon & Kate Plus 8 last night. I didn’t watch it the previous few weeks, either.
Sometime last year, I was watching it pretty regularly. I had my DVR set to record it, I enjoyed back episodes. The kids, obviously, were super cute. The relationship dynamic was weird, but I sort of came to understand it and just accept it in the manner of “everyone’s relationship is different.” While I knew they had more help and more sources of income than the show really dwelled on, there was something sort of normal about them.
I started to lose interest when the travel and freebies were seemingly the focus of every episode. I don’t begrudge anyone for taking someone up on an offer for a free trip or whatever, but I stopped enjoying watching it.
Then they got the dogs. I couldn’t even watch the entire episode when they got the two GERMAN SHEPHERD puppies. It was clearly such an abysmal idea, I just couldn’t even bear to witness it. While I’m not a model dog owner, I care enough and know enough about dogs that… lord. Forget it. I tuned out. Do they even still have the dogs? Have they disappeared the way babies tend to do on sitcoms? I have no idea.
Then, they splashed all over the front pages of the trashy magazines in the grocery check-out aisle. Amazing how fast things can turn when you’re in the public eye. Flame up, crash hard. I don’t care whose “fault” this whole thing is. Everything cuts about six different ways, and it’s none of my business to speculate.
But I can’t watch it. Not even in the “disaster but can’t look away” kind of way. I didn’t even really intend to blog about it. Alas. Even the tweets from the last couple of episodes have been painful to read, and I’m not even watching. You can’t get away from it.
I’m a child of divorce. A few of them, even. Now, being a married adult with my own kids, I have a renewed appreciation for how much it sucks. SUCKS. Sucks for the kids. Sucks to end a relationship. Sucks in a million different ways. And that’s under normal, even “ideal” circumstances when people aren’t screaming at each other, aren’t moving out of state, aren’t cheating on anyone, and are generally more or less amicable, at least to outside appearances. And, you know, not on television or in the gossip magazines.
Knowing the pain of that, in varying degrees, is at least one reason why it feels so very wrong to watch any of this stuff. It’s one thing to watch someone on TV make a fool of themselves, or do something generally stupid, gross, or even dangerous. This…. this is just too painful.
Please, avert your eyes.
Tags: divorced parents, jon and kate plus 8, TV
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
This is how I feel too. Sad for the kids. I set my tivo to record it but didn’t watch it and deleted it. Instead watched Top Chef Masters! I just can’t imagine how those kids are going to feel when they are adults and they watch the disintegration of that marriage on national tv.
TLC put it on hiatus and I will be very surprised to see it come back. They just walked over some hideous line here.
But good old drunken stripper skanks on a bus? That is entertainment.
LauraC´s last blog ..Yes, the kid is motivated
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I agree with you, Liz! That’s why, shortly after I blogged about it (just a little paragraph in one of my posts a couple of weeks back), I canceled my DVR recording of the show. I did watch last night b/c they reeled me in with the “important announcement” part. They just really started to annoy me when it seemed like the fame got to their heads. That’s right around when they started getting ALL THIS FREE STUFF, and Kate started wearing her humongo sunglasses, and they just seemed so … NOT normal … that I could no longer relate as a parent (or, back in the earlier days, as a to-be parent). It was like, “Ok, why do I want to watch two obnxious people raise their eight children in la-la land?” Yesterday’s episode was painful for many reasons, one of which being that only last summer, Jon and Kate had their much-publicized wedding vow renewal ceremony in Hawaii. I remember one of the little kids asking what was going on, and Kate said, “This is to show you that mommy and daddy will be together forever and ever, no matter what happens.” Now, I don’t know how much little kids remember, but gosh, only a year later, mommy and daddy are NOT together forever and ever. Not to mention, if they see that vow renewal episode when they’re older, doesn’t that just make them cynical? Sigh. Very sad. I’m not saying that divorce is wrong — clearly, sometimes it’s the best answer for a relationship that’s just not working — but it is wrong to be splashed all over TV, magazines and with the kids in the middle.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Oh! Another thing. I don’t like how it seems like TLC is constantly trolling for large families or families with big numbers of multiples for its shows. Enough already!
Beverly´s last blog ..Jack Gives Birth to a Moose
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Yes, the dogs are still there. I watched for them specifically in last night’s episode. They were running around outside while the playhouses were built. They are so cute and much bigger, though still a bit “puppyish”
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I watched but was so depressed and saddened by the whole thing- I think I will boycott from now on. They did keep stating the fact that parents of multiples have a much higher rate of divorce, with the stress and all just means we all have to work harder!
amanda´s last blog ..Summer Vacation Makes My Monday
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I totally agree- I’m not a parent, but as a teacher I’m really starting to worry about these kids, and what this show will mean to them in the future. Will they really want to pop in the show and watch the demise of their parents relationship someday? How will they react when other kids discuss details of their lives like the lived in The Truman Show? Sad- and really it’s all about $$$$ Kate says sometimes she will do the show, and sometimes Jon will do the show- how about cancelling the show?
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 pm
It is definitely a sad, sad situation. But what gets me, is that every time I talk to someone about it, I get angry. I’m angry with Jon, angry with Kate, but surprisingly the most angry with TLC. Also the child of divorce (and also more than one), I know that this is going to suck for a long, long time. I’ve never watched the show in real time, and when season 5 started, I was still back in season 4. Ironically, the last episode I saw was the vow renewals in Hawaii. I just keep telling myself that if I don’t watch anymore episodes, I can remember them that way- together and happy- forever.
But then there’s the magazine rack in the grocery line…
June 24th, 2009 at 12:34 am
I agree. I’m a child of divorce too, and have no desire to see a bunch of kids put through that. Been there, done that. Please shut down the show.
Jungletwins´s last blog ..It’s the End of the World as we Know it…
June 24th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Thanks for pointing out the “reality” of the “show” Liz. Those poor kids. They didn’t ask for any of this and it will haunt them forever.