I am the Mama

Virtually everything I watch is available online, so when we cut the cable off I was fine with watching it via Hulu or the network’s website.  Except that I watch TV at night to help me wind down and get to sleep.  Sometimes this backfires…I’ll stay awake even longer to finish the show, but usually I manage to fall asleep at a reasonable hour.  So now what?  How am I going to get my brain shut down enough to sleep?

Luckily Netflix is inexpensive and we have a Wii to stream it, but that’s only in the living room.  My mom is getting us something that will stream in the bedroom for our birthdays, but in the meantime I have only a DVD player.  While this seemed bad at first, I realized I could get shows that I have never been able to see and watch them!  Except I have a hard time remembering what to get…

The first one I put on my list is Six Feet Under.  Friends have recommended it to me, but we all know I’m intensely uncomfortable with the subject of death so I wasn’t quite sure.  I’ve seen the end of the show because it’s set to one of my favorite songs and was intrigued, wanting to know how it all started.  I decided to take a chance and put it in my queue.  At worst, I hate it and take it out, right?  I watched the first episode and part of the 2nd one last night and really enjoyed it, so I’m thinking it’s a keeper.  I’m also hoping it might change my attitudes toward death and dying a little bit…we’ll see.

Next up is Dexter.  This one I’m really not sure about but I hear all kinds of good/interesting things about it, so I’m giving it a shot.  I also added Mad Men.  I’ve read so much about it but haven’t had a chance to watch it.  I realize that these 3 may take me a while to get caught up on, but I’m still wanting to add things, so let’s hear it from you…what’s your must-see TV recommendation?

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Today I planned on talking about Violet’s asthma diagnosis, but I’m putting it off to discuss the very hot topic of people who got famous for using fertility treatments in a dangerous manner.  I’m referring to Jon and Kate Gosselin and their 8 children.

I’m disgusted by their irresponsible use of fertility treatments.  I am assuming they used a similar process to the one I used while trying to get pregnant with my 2nd child.  Without getting into the overly graphic details, we used a drug that stimulated my ovaries to produce more eggs than the average woman produces during any one cycle.  As the months went on and I didn’t get pregnant, we increased the dosage (on my doctor’s advice) gradually.  The higher the dose, the more eggs I made.  Some we knew were definitely mature, and some were borderline and unlikely to fertilize.  But our doctor played it safe and when I got pregnant, it was with only one baby.  We did take some calculated risks with our doctor’s blessing but were very, very cautious to ensure that we didn’t end up with more babies than we could handle.  I do not know exactly what happened in their situation, but I suspect that they ignored their doctor’s advice.  If not, they had a very irresponsible doctor.  It is people like the Gosselins who give fertility treatments a bad name.  You rarely hear about the millions of cases where people end up with 1 or 2 healthy babies…it’s the ones like Jon & Kate or Octomom who make the news.

Unless you’re living under a rock, you probably heard that they filed for divorce on Monday.  I was SO surprised…NOT!  I rarely watched the show, generally catching it when they ran a marathon on a weekend or something.  But even in the first season, I remember thinking that she was so hateful to her husband.  Maybe I am lucky to have a husband with whom I share a mutually respectful (but playful!) relationship where that would never be OK, especially in such a public forum.  I can guarantee you that we would never be so ugly and disrespectful to each other in front of the camera.  We’ve certainly had our moments, but they are always behind closed doors where nobody, even (especially?) our children, could hear.

None of this excuses Jon for his immature behavior, of course.  He’s culpable, too.  You don’t jump into marriage and fatherhood at a young age if you’re not ready to do that.  Considering they used fertility treatments for their first 2 children (twins) he had time to think it over and make sure he was doing something he wanted to do before they brought innocent children into the mix.  And then if he did feel that he hadn’t had the chance to sow his wild oats enough, there were certainly ways he could have done so without hurting his wife and family in the process.

I think the whole thing is disgusting and shameful.  She treats the children horribly, treated him like dirt, they exploited those kids for a nice house, a tummy tuck, and teeth whitening…and the losers in this are those 8 kids.  It is them I feel sorry for, them I worry about.  Their parents have made their ugly bed and are lying in it, but who will make sure these children are not damaged any more than they already have been?  It’s a sad story and I hope they all disappear so it can be worked out without a camera in their faces recording every moment of pain.  Personally I’d be happy if I never heard another word about them all.  At least then it would be easy to believe that their children really do come first in their lives!

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