I am, like so many folks, addicted to trash TV and magazines. I'm not proud of it, but it's a fact. There is nothing I want to see more than a good episode of the Real Housewives, or some other trashy Bravo network show.
My addiction to trash has taken a serious turn recently. I'm talking about the media frenzy that is Jon and Kate plus 8. I'm both saddened and sickened by what appears to be their marital problems. I keep thinking about those 8 precious children, and while I am sure that now they are very well insulated from the media hoopla that surrounds their parents, one day they will have access to this garbage. They will read about their father's alleged infidelity, their mother's controlling and domineering behavior. One day they'll know things about their parents that children simply shouldn't know.
It is too easy to blame their parents for this. Sure, Jon and Kate put their children on display for the world to see, and in doing so have left them all vulnerable to media scrutiny. I dare say that anyone I know wouldn't make the same choices that Jon and Kate have made. They have 8 mouths to feed. 8 college tuitions to prepare for. I would be hard pressed to turn down a paying gig that would help me feed my family. Who can blame them for answering the door when TLC came a'knockin'.
It's been interesting to watch the media coverage of this private (as if they will ever have a private life again) crisis. First, the allegations that Jon was having an affair with a younger woman. Then, the reports that it was Kate's controlling and demeaning treatment of Jon that made him step out. This one I love, blame the woman. If she'd been more understanding, more patient, and less controlling why this wouldn't have happened, if it did happen. It's ridiculous. Although I am guilty of thinking it myself. Why, if Kate was warmer and more loving to her husband, blah, blah, blah... Now, family members are crawling out of the woodwork with their individual stories of how the marriage was a sham for quite some time and essentially the couple have been estranged for months. I find this twist in the story especially interesting. No one on the outside of a marriage can accurately or fairly say what it's like.
The trash lover in me is titillated by all of this. Ooh.. who is at fault? Did he really have an affair? Did she? How could he stand to be treated the way she treats him? Ooh... enquiring minds, etc. But sadly, the show isn't called Jon and Kate. It's about a family and the all important +8, the folks who have the most to lose from all of this. My heart breaks for them and their parents. Marital strife is never easy. It's painful and devastating. I can only imagine how the media attention makes it all the more so.
Tonight when the season premieres I, like millions of others, will be watching to see if there's a crack in the facade. It's shameful, but I'll be doing it and all the while I'll be praying for those 8 gorgeous children, that their parents get their act together and do what's right for their family.
I'll be praying for them, all of them.
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