The End of an Era?

Posted by Vulnadia on Nov 24, 2009 at 10:32 AM Oh look, it's quite possibly the end of an era, Jon + Kate + 8 is OVER and, I didn't watch, personally. What's more, my kids didn't watch, either. Why? Maybe it was lack of interest, I don't know. Most likely it was out of protest and the idea that the show has made life with multiples much more difficult than it should have been! This show has given the general public some sort of empowerment that they actually KNOW what it's like to have multiples in their family, thus giving them the gumption to say and do things that normally I don't really think they would have done! Seriously, at first people did & said silly things in front of us, but after the show started, it began to evolve into something far more than just, "Pardon me, are those triplets?" or "Did you use fertility?" or the really awful & intensely uncomfortable, "I'm sorry!" that we normally get when people saw us out & about pre-show airing. I began to get parenting advice offerred up from well-meaning people who didn't have multiples, not anywhere in their family even. Why? Because they saw it on T.V. I kid you not, it gave them gumption and information that the normal folk just didn't have pre-show airing. Suddenly EVERYONE knew more about my kids than I did, or any self-help book EVER could and felt the need to voice that in public! It became a game to us, trying not to laugh outright at some of the things that were said and offerred up, and even done in the name of catching a glimpse of us for longer than a passing glance. Then came the Octo-mom and everyone changed their views of multiples and their families. If she was the way the tabloids made her out to be, then all parents and families of multiples must be the same way. Really? They can't be serious, or so I thought, but sadly they were and ARE! I can't tell you how many times I have been asked all about it, over and beyond the normal yet bizarre questions that are our social norm in fielding. You should have seen how regular normal everyday people started doing stalking-type behaviour just to see my kids all of the sudden. It ranged anywhere from throwing their buggy's in front of us to stop my stroller so they could stare and not say anything, to people working together to block us in an aisle just so they could stand there and observe and talk about us "Crocodile Hunter Style"...did they talk TO us? Heck no, and it weirded my kids out and often made them cry! Suddenly, we were being followed in stores, even out to our mommie-van and people would actually dare to poke their heads inside my van just so they could stare at my kids. Nobody in their right mind would treat a regular family that way, but after Jon+Kate & the paparazzi movement, they suddenly appeared to find this sort of behaviour acceptable and somehow we "Owed" it to them to allow it? People actually would get offended if I politely asked them to please allow me to safely get my small children into their carseats and buckled. I would have to point out that their invasion of our privacy was actually endangering my children as they were distracting both me and them and what my kids would try to do to get away from them or out of their sight was often dangerous and not safe in parking lots and public places. Seriously, do Mommies with singleton children spaced a year or so apart have this problem? Do you often get followed in shopping areas, grocery stores, even into parking lots to your cars just so people can stare at your kids? Do total strangers get too close for comfort, do things like follow you that normally would constitute stalking type behavior or even would normally make you suspect of mugging, carjacking etc. if it were just you in or your friends out for a shopping excursion? Seriously, I never had this problem back when I had just one child, and I'm not talking about the well meaning elderly lady making nice comments about how cute your kiddo is in the market, either! Now, with the sunset of this show, maybe we will find it easier to go out once again into the world WITHOUT being given the evil-eye, WITHOUT it being assumed that my husband and I must have marital trouble because we have multiples; WITHOUT having to hear all of the "You should have done it this way or that way" because that is how Kate would have done it etc. Sure, I don't mind answering questions about my kids, really I don't, but make sure it's about MY kids, not Kate's or the Octo-mom's! People actually superimpose and assume that because the "celebrity multiples" live life a certain way that we ALL must be the same, share the same problems, child rearing methods & issues at home and within our marriage and family as the others! Now that the show has ended, maybe, just maybe we can just go out and be the every-family and be treated like everyone else. I can count on one hand how many times in the past 6 months my kids have been able to go grocery shopping or to Target with me. And you can bet when we go, we go incognito. Nope, we cannot use the stroller because it in itself is a huge tip-off that we are multiples. The kids ride in the cart where it's harder to tell if they are "Multiples" or not. And sadly, it's like a safari because they really truly don't get out much, we really can't. Hopefully this will all die down soon and multiples will once again just become a simple novelty occurrence instead of grounds for being read the "Octo-mom" or "Jon + Kate" riot act! original 'Jon and Kate' Say Goodbye in TLC Finale -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINT | E-MAIL More -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although 'Jon and Kate Plus 8' aired its final episode on Monday, Kate Gosselin admits it could have been avoided. "I feel like it's been taken from us, from me and the kids," she said about the TV series that ended this week after five seasons due to the disagreements between she and estranged husband Jon Gosselin. The hour mixed direct-to-camera, separate interviews with both parents. Kate called the series' end "needless. It's useless, it's totally avoidable. ...