If 8 kids can’t hold a marriage together what can?

Last night I watched the season premier episode of my favorite reality television show, Jon and Kate Plus 8, and I actually shed a tear. I didn’t realize how attached I had become to that family until I saw them on what appeared to be the verge of their demise. I used to marvel at how Jon and Kate appeared to be this united front, beating the odds and raising 8 happy kids together. They had become my symbol of hope that the family can survive even in these crazy times. For those who don’t know, Jon and Kate Plus 8 is one of several reality shows on TLC showcasing the miracle of raising an enormous brood of offspring without killing anybody.  The couple got pregnant with sextuplets after already having twins, giving them a total of 8 kids.

In seasons past, the Gosselins appear to be just as much superparents as they were flawed and real individuals. They had all the normal challenges of parenthood multiplied by eight yet they seemed to always work it out. Despite all the stresses of raising 8 kids Kate managed to find the time to make them heart shaped pancakes from scratch on valentines day. I can barely find the energy to toss a pop tart in the toaster some days and I don’t even have any kids. 

Yeah Kate came across as a little bossy at times, but she had to run a tight ship just to keep her sanity with so many kids to take care of. Jon had a slightly more laisez faire approach to parenting. But this seemed to bring some balance to the household. I watched them renew their vows in Hawaii just a month ago and all was good with the world. But thanks to the magic of television last night I saw the once happy couple sitting 12 feet apart on a 2 foot couch* barely acknowledging each others existence. How could what seemed to be such perfect family be falling apart literally right before my eyes???

Okay I have to admit there were some signs. Last season I saw the annoyed glances from Jon that made it clear that Kate bossing him around was getting kind of old. And raising 8 kids has to take it’s toll on any human being. But I never expected to see him on the cover of a tabloid doing who knows what with who knows who. Now the rumors are flying. Kate’s crying on national television. And my favorite reality television family could be coming apart at the seams.

And its stressing me out!  After watching the show I actually had a dream that I set out to help them save their marriage. Unfortunately I woke up before I ever managed to do that. I barely ever watch television with the exception of this show and Jon Stewart, but I might have to take a break from watching them because I have apparently internalized their pain. This is why I don’t watch television. Either it sucks royally or it stresses me out.

Maybe the blogosphere is right about their allegations that this whole drama is just a ploy to rake in higher ratings. Higher ratings = more episodes = more money. And $75,000 an episode is nothing to sneeze at. They could certainly use the money to help fund 8 college educations. So I would totally understand if that was the case. But something tells me the tension I saw on that couch was real. Hopefully for the sake of their kids and the sanctity of my sleep they’ll go to marriage counseling and work it out.

* Thanks to my friend Cam for pointing this out.

When swine flew cable news was there to cover it

I  apologize for yet another lengthy hiatus between postings, but I just got out of quarantining myself from H1N1. I found out about the swine flu while I was on my layover returning from my vacation in Puerto Rico and based on the amount of coverage it was getting I assumed that Outbreak had come true while I was on vacation. I momentarily considered turning around and trying to book a flight back to Puerto Rico where most of the news coverage was in Spanish so I was completely oblivious to the impending pandemic in progress.

 People temporarily lost touch with reality over the swine flu for a minute. We got to see on an almost minute by minute basis how quickly a virus can spread from state to state and country to country. (Obviously not nearly as quickly as this viral email.)

Because of the panic caused at least partly by the frantic media hype, schools were closed*, people canceled vacations, and a whole population of innocent Egyptian pigs were slaughtered. Yet when put in perspective, for most people, swine flu probably only posed a minuscule risk when compared to their risks of catching any of the hundreds of other communicable diseases that no one gives us minute by minute updates on.  Imagine if we got a news update every time someone was diagnosed with tuberculosis, or AIDS, or any of the many other STDs. It would be a never ending update. Constant news updates could possibly have a positive effect initially of scaring a few extra people into using condoms…but eventually everyone would probably just get desensitized.

According to the latest update there are around 2254 cases of confirmed swine flu in the US. Comparing the swine flu stats to other risks (tuberculosis (13,224), AIDS (1,106,400), and the heebie jeebies** (724,998,976) ) and we see that the risk of catching swine flu only beats out the risk of getting hit on the head by a falling anvil by a small margin. Although frequent viewing of Looney Tunes would lead us to believe that risk is significantly higher.

All joking aside I don’t mean to belittle the significance of H1N1 that much, I just get a little miffed when things get blown out of proportion due to the mixed blessing that is 24-hour news coverage.

Thankfully most of the media coverage of the swine flu has died down, so now the 24 news coverage can turn to more pressing matters like Obamas choice of condiments on his cheeseburger.

 

 

* Okay I have to admit that my concern meter went up a notch when it was reported that a kid at a school just a few miles from my employer was infected. But mostly I was hoping that my employer would overreact and give us a week off work (I mean surely someone I work with has a kid at that school).

** Beware, most people infected with the heebie jeebies have no idea they are infected