Jon & Kate + 8

I’ve recently discovered the little gem of a reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8. If you are unfamiliar with that show which airs on TLC, it’s about the Gosselin family which consists of parents Jon & Kate, 7 year-old twins Cara and Madelyn, and 4 year-old sextuplets (yup, that’s six!) Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah, and Joel. That’s 10 people in that household!

Of course having two sets of multiples will be entertaining. TLC has marathons of the show during weekends occassionally and I eat it up – I TiVo it and watch it while folding laundry and thank my lucky stars I don’t have nearly as many clothes to wash as Kate does (though hubilicious may beg to differ since he believes I own way too many clothes for one human being).

If I mention the show to people, I hear “Kate is so mean!” “I don’t know how Jon & Kate are still together, they don’t seem to get along at all.” etc. You have to take the show with a grain of salt. The producers edit it to show the most entertaining and drama filled moments in their lives. But if you sit down and watch a couple of episodes, you see how loving and caring the family is. It takes some serious dedication to have 8 children – especially when you have 6 of them that are the same age and go through the same stages at the same time.

Hubilicious and I watched a couple of episodes last night. One of which featured movie night in the Gosseling household. Family traditions are wonderful and Kate and Jon always try to “make memories” – that is the major goal of anything the family does. I think this is a wonderful thing to aspire for. Who cares if there are meltdowns or things don’t go perfectly planned? As long as there are family memories, that’s all that matters.

Well, during family night they watched an episode of Planet Earth since the kids love animals. Seems innocent enough right? Well, they show mating to which Kate refers to it as the animals taking piggy back rides so the kids don’t question what’s going on. Then, she named each animal after every member of the family and would say things like “Oh look what Daddy is doing!” “What’s Cara eating?” etc. Then came the part where the monkey got eaten by the tiger.

One of the kids says, “I’m eating Aaden!” Some of the kids cry, but the tiger-kid? Went up to Aaden and patted him on the head as if to say, “It’s ok, I’m not really eating you, I love you!”

I thought it was both hilarious and sweet. And disturbing.

So anyway, catch the show if you have the guts too. Really gives you appreciation for handling that many kids on a daily breakfast. And I was amazed at how Kate can feed a family of 10 on $150 a week. I need to learn those mad skills!