It’s time to go back to school and this year, for the first time, all 8 of the Gosselin children are heading to the classroom. With all the kids away, how will Kate handle an empty nest for the first time?
School Days – New Episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8
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35 Responses to School Days – New Episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8
I think this will be a bittersweet episode. I remember they were both at the bus stop and in the promo Kate seems surprised when Jon shows up. Is this the last episode they filmed?
i am looking forward to seeing this as the pap videos and pix from when jon and kate dropped them off the first day showed a lot of….less-than-animosity-but-certainly-not-friendly feelings between the two.
That was a really nice episode. Just doing regular stuff, and no meltdowns. J&K both talked about always being there for the kids, and I hope they can get back on track with that.
Mady was so sweet talking about “the little things in diapers” getting on the bus and going to school. She sounded so grown-up. And the little kids thinking they would be in Mady and Cara’s class, then spotting Cara in her classroom and squealing, was so funny. (Well, the telling of it was, they didn’t actually show it!)
I was shocked that obviously Kate rarely if ever goes upstairs to be with her 8 kids. I guess the full-time nanny and her part-time babysitter (that Kate referenced at one of her talks) goes upstairs and handles & visits with the children. And I thought Kate was suppose to be so organized. From her own mouth, the twins room were “beyond horrid” !
well i think what i heard kate say was that she hardly ever goes up to cara and mady’s room except to get the laundry…and it usually ends up like it did that day.
but she didn’t mention not going in the tups’ rooms at all. i’m sure she does…she said in this episode (as well as others i’ve heard her say it in) for the kids to go brush their teeth and get in bed and she’d come kiss them.
i know some people think kate doesn’t love her kids or show them any affection except for the camera but i don’t believe that for a minute. i think when they aren’t filming and kate is home with them they do normal things and she oversees their baths, homework, and spends time with them and talks to them and puts them to bed.
if you believe jon (more than kate) he said just last week to a pap that the nanny comes for a couple hours in the morning and then again a couple hours at night. so i don’t believe the nanny takes care of the kids and kate doesn’t see, play, love on them.
i really liked this episode. the kids are real cute and i loved the things kiki mentioned. so sweet! good epi tlc..i wonder where one can *tell* this to tlc.
i think they should know *some of us* like the show still.
Did she really throw all the girls stuff down the stairs for them to clean up after school? Did she break stuff? I hope she realizes that the kids are going to act out and messy rooms are a sign of messy minds who can’t figure out what the heck the adults are doing.
[shakes head, walks away]
Cripes, Kate can’t do anything without getting raked over the coals. I am sure she is in the kids bedrooms plenty. She told the kids she would be up to tuck them in. And I didn’t get the impression she hadn’t been in the twins bedroom… just that she hadn’t cleaned in there for a while. Remember filming in the bedrooms is not allowed so we just won’t see Kate there.
And no she didn’t leave the stuff she threw down for the twins to pick up. She mentioned doing the washing and that there were several garbage bags full of things that day.
I thought Kate did very well with the kids. Nice that she had them all get different sneakers though I expect that all the people complained about her always dressing them to match will complain about her not letting them get sneakers they want. And I am sure she will be vilified for not getting tie sneakers instead of velcro.
The kids seemed calm and happy in that episode. It seems like maybe the turmoil of the eary summer lessened.
My memory may be incorrect, but didn’t Jon and Kate say in the episode where they showed the new house that one of the things they liked about the new house was that Mady and Cara had a room that was kind of separated from the rest of the house? My impression was that there was a stairwell that led just to the twins bedroom – the stairwell Kate was standing in on the episode, and there is the main stairwell that you see all the time. I remember thinking how cool for the twins to have a room like that – I would have LOVED to have had a room like that at their age and in my teen years – ESPECIALLY if I had all of those younger brothers and sisters bugging me all the time! Since their room is separated like that I’m sure Kate doesn’t go up there that often and when she does I’m sure she is mortified at the mess. I was under the impression from her comments that the room had just hit the point where she had HAD it with the mess and took it upon herself to gut it – I have been there MANY times with my 11 yearold over the years. Once they are old enough to pick up on their own they never seem to do it up to mom’s standards and every once in awhile I take it upon myself to “gut” the room and give it a major cleaning. And I, like Kate, do it when the kids are in school so I can pitch things without them noticing! Things that should have been pitched long ago – that haven’t been played with for years that if the kids were home they would insist on keeping! In our house the master bedroom and living area is on the main floor and my 3 kids rooms are upstairs and I am mortified at how trashed the upstairs is by lunchtime on any given day!
I am amazed at how many people knock Kate for having help – babysitter,nanny, cleaning people, whatever, as if that is all a bad thing. I’m sorry, but NO ONE can take care of 8 young kids by themselves and do it well. I have 3 kids and a husband and we struggle at times – she has almost triple the number of kids I have. There are many people with far less children than Kate who have help. There are many people who make far less money than the Gosselins who have a weekly cleaning lady (I have often thought to myself if Iwere Kate I would have put it in my contract with TLC that they provide me a cleaning lady if they want to film my house – hopefully she did that!). And now that she doesn’t have a husband around full time – really all the nanny is doing is fulfilling Jon’s role – she doesn’t have EXTRA help – she is just back up to where parents are who have a husband and wife in the same household.
Finally, I about fell off my chair in this episode when Jon was on the couch saying his kids have to get up “wicked” early and making the hand gesture to boot…..I’m sorry but does he know what a fool he looks like at 32 years old with 8 kids speaking like a 15 year old? Boy, hanging out with 20 year olds sure has done wonders for this guy! He’s cool beyond belief….whatever…act your age buddy and be a man that your children can look up to. It’s pretty bad that even TMZ and some of the other gossip websites are making fun of him, yet he seems to think these paps are his friends???!!! They are laughing all the way to the bank! I hope someone in his family steps up to the plate and knocks some sense into this guy!
as usual paige has said it well…and i totally agree with you jmax. you gals must get up earlier than i do. you’ve usually replied what i would have before i get here! thanks! lol.
I liked this episode a lot. I like seeing them doing normal everyday things.
Jon and Kate both have said the nanny comes in the morning and in the evening, sounds to me like the nanny is there just when they need an extra pair of hands, if they didn’t have someone to help them during the craziest parts of their day some of the children would be left unattended and that would give people a new reason to complain.
I don’t think she “never” goes in Cara and Mady’s room, I think some of anxiety about the shape of their room that day was nervous energy, for the first time ever all her kids were in school, I’m sure she was a basket case that day. This school year is the first time all my kids are in school and I was the same way on the first day.
I try not to go in my kids’ bedrooms. I like to give them their own space. I used to clean thoroughly once a month, but then they took over that job when they were old enough to NOT want me in there. The twins are getting to that age. It’s a gradual process.
Yes, sometimes my kids’ rooms were “horrid.” Not health-hazard horrid, just not-up-to-mom’s-standards-horrid.
Who hasn’t flung stuff to throw out/store/wash in heap at one point? Even if you haven’t, it’s a way SOME of us get deep-cleaning started.
My mom took care of 8 young kids very well. We were close in age, though that isn’t sextuplets. She and my Dad make a fine team. He was very hands-on (and mature.) He held a good job, but was home early to coach sports teams, help settle disputes, play with us, etc. Kate’s husband isn’t there, and that show requires her to do more than play in front of the cameras. My mom didn’t work outside the home. I understand the need for helpers and babysitters, and nannies if the parents are both travelling.
This episode made me sad. I look at that gorgeous house and think that it is so sad that they are not a cohesive family that can enjoy it. Your turn, my turn. I’m sure when they started out, they never thought it would end this way. They worked so hard to provide a wonderful house for their kids, and lost sight of providing a home. Jon is the biggest jerk walking, but they both made mistakes. Now they are fighting over money, custody, etc. They had so much to be happy about, and seem more unhappy than ever.
Why dont they play in the backyard away from the paparazzi they supposedly hate? Why not build a bigger tall fence instead of redoing that already gorgeous kitchen?
Why does Kate say now the kids cant go to see the Statue of Liberty because the show cancelled? Some people actually have family vacations without TV cameras!!
Why doesnt the view issue a statement correcting all the lies they let Kate tell on TV? Oh, sorry, I guess she can pay her bills and Jon didnt take as much as Kate said….sorry we let her use us for a sopbox again…but maybe an Oscar for the tears?
Why dont they play in the backyard away from the paparazzi they supposedly hate?
Ask Jon. He had them out front when we was there over the weekend. And he tried to sell ET the right to film the kids in the front yard on the twins birthday but Kate kept the kids in the house (Jon had to walk down to the fence by himself to talk to the paps). Also one of his pap friends was invited to take pictures at the pumpkin patch – pictures sold to Radar on Line.
But seriously, I expect the kids do play in the backyard a lot. Just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I remember that GWOPers were moaning a lot over the summer that Kate never let the kids use the pool. Turns out the kids were using the pool daily.
Why not build a bigger tall fence instead of redoing that already gorgeous kitchen?
Not sure it was an either/or proposition. Of course, Kate’s friends husband was in cabinent making and not fence making so that had a lot to do with doing the kitchen.
Why does Kate say now the kids cant go to see the Statue of Liberty because the show cancelled? Some people actually have family vacations without TV cameras!!
I am sure they will take family vacations still. That was the trip planned to film right after Jon shut down production – the disppointment for the kids was that they weren’t taking the trip when the kids were expecting it. If a trip was planned one way when the expectation TLC would be organizing and arranging things, it would take replanning fior Kate to figure out how to do it alone.
Why doesnt the view issue a statement correcting all the lies they let Kate tell on TV? Oh, sorry, I guess she can pay her bills and Jon didnt take as much as Kate said….sorry we let her use us for a sopbox again…but maybe an Oscar for the tears?
It is not clear that Kate lied. Her lawyer says that the $180,000 was the money Jon was expected to pay back, not all the money he took.
More importantly, why would Kate be held to a different standard than anyone else. When a political lies on the news, the television progam does not issue a statement correcting his/her lies. They just report the other side of the story. For example, when Clinton lied about having sex with Monica Lewinsky, no television program issues a statement correcting his lie. They just reported Monica Lewinsky’s side of the story and information from subsequent hearings and proceedings.
I am amazed at how many people knock Kate for having help – babysitter,nanny, cleaning people, whatever, as if that is all a bad thing.
JMax – for me its the fact that Kate owns up to the help she has when she feels like it. When they moved into their new home, Kate was just as busy and Jon was doing God knows what, they both insisted they have a babysitter – not a nanny, implying they are doing most of the work themselves. In my opinion, the current nanny duties are probably not much different then they were before, it’s just that Kate has decided that it’s ok to call her a nanny now. Last week, even Jon busted Kate by saying that while Kate insisted she didn’t have a chef, but craft services a while ago, (it might still be on their family’s FAQ page) in reality the person really was a chef.
Jon busted Kate? He’s hardly the source of truth these days. I pretty much figure anything that comes out of his mouth is the lie and everything else is the truth. Now he didn’t hack but his lawyer says he didn’t illegally hack. So he hacked and he’s lying.
Guys Guys…
can i say that this was a good episode cause there was no fighting and all love. I liked the fact that jon came home to see his kids go to kindergarden. I would`ve hated it if he didnt. AND guys the reason they arent going to the statue of liberty is because they dont have enough money to go if they dont do the show cause jon is spending all their money!
LOVE YOU ANNS!
Last week, even Jon busted Kate by saying that while Kate insisted she didn’t have a chef, but craft services a while ago, (it might still be on their family’s FAQ page) in reality the person really was a chef.
Sue, the chef thing was one of the points that always interested me. I didn’t see the interview w/Jon where he discussed this. I have read here and there that he said TLC paid for all their perks. I think that’s the same one you’re referring to, since I never heard him say that in the interviews I watched w/him. He’s hard to keep up with since he’s always talking.
I have heard that Craft Services can be fabulous. There should be a chef in charge. The difference for me, was that it was not J&K’s own personal organic chef cooking all their meals as Julie indicated. That’s what I thought the website was trying to counter. I would have liked to have seen the table on the show, at least once.
I liked the episode. My fav was Aaden doing the little arm spaz when Kate found a lunchbox he liked.
I did see kate throwing the girls things down the stairs and while I always throw all our laundry from bedding, bathrooms, hampers etc down the stairs (heck it’s just LAUNDRY! it’s not going to break and I’m not going to walk up and down forty times, it’s just dirty clothes) I would never go into my kids room when they are not home and throw SIX bags of “trash” out. Who says it’s trash? Kate wanted to throw collin’s bear away too, that was certainly not trash, not to him. I don’t like this side of her and I don’t know why they’d want to film this instead of just about anything else she would be doing. Not that it doesn’t happen but whyhighlight this.I
wonder how they felt coming back to a room with six bags of their things in the trash, that’s not cool. They are nine. That’s old enough to take responsibility. It would have been fun to see her work with them to organize it and make choices, carry laundry down and set things aside to give away. I love doing the closet thing with my kids a couple times a year, but then I have 3 not 8.
I haven’t seen her do much with just the twins lately. Maybe that is how they want it. They are getting old enough to know what privacy is and to value it despite or because of those jerks at the end of the driveway.
Sue, I think I have seen them both say that since Jon moved out, they have a nannies now…she has to do overnights because there is not always a parent home.
Last year, when Kate was traveling, Jon was not. He was the stay-at-home parent. He made a point in an interview that he was home and feeling a bit jealous that she was traveling, eating out, and he wasn’t. Kate said something similar. We all know that since the separation both Jon and Kate have been away from home at the same time.
IMO, you’re wrong that the current duties are the same. Just my opinion. (And I am not even talking about the “new” stuff Stephanie Santoro had to do.)
As for craft services…that’s different than a personal chef. Craft services provides food on filming days. Besides the Gosselins, there is a crew that need to be fed, too. I would hope a chef is in charge of preparing that food. It’s not the same thing as having a chef prepare all of the family meals.
I didn’t hear Jon’s response about it either. Is it possible that Jon was explaining what “craft services” meant, just as he did when he explained what “PR” meant on the show?
I am amazed at how many people knock Kate for having help – babysitter,nanny, cleaning people, whatever, as if that is all a bad thing.
that’s crazy, why wuold you not have help if you could afford it and were a single working mother. I had a housekeeper and my salary was about what Kate makes in three episodes. She came in to get the kids off the bus at 3 and stayed til I got home at 530. She did laundry and pushed the vacuum and kept an eye out for them and got dinner started. For $100 a week it was half what I would have paid the kids to stay in after school care, and it meant I could come home to something other than bedlam rushing to get the kids and make dinner.
I like cooking but when you work it gets old. As long as they have a good hot meal who cares who cooked it.
In response to jmax it is possible for a woman to care for eight, nine, ten, eleven and more children without a nanny, babysitter, gardener, etc. and do it just fine whether married or not. Women have been doing so for years without any problems. Kate has gone and sent the at-home mother back decades in her continued comments about how hard her life is and the continual complaining when she has all this paid help that the majority of women with large families don’t have and probably don’t want. This woman has no concept of raising eight children because she isn’t doing it–her help is being paid to do it and the world knows it.
Now that the children are in school Kate needs to get a job with her skills and get her children off the airwaves and let them be children. These kids are going to be at an age soon where they will expose exactly what kind of a mother Kate was and what kind of father Jon was while they are trying to pay for therapy for their misguided childhood these so-called parents caused.
I would LOVE to know how many children you have Diane, and how old they are.
I am a stay-at-home mom, with no hired help, with a fabulous husband, and 3 children (not 8!) – ages 11, 4, and 2. Many days I am barely keeping up…with the house, meals, children, etc. You darn well better believe if I could afford it I would hire help in a New York minute, and I sure as hell would never begrudge another woman for doing so. I’m sorry, NONE of us are perfect parents. It’s just AMAZING to me how many people feel they have right to tell Jon and Kate how to raise their children. As parents WE ALL do things that may adversely affect our children later in life – NONE of us reach adulthood unscathed no matter how perfect of a childhood our parents may have tried to give us. As parents we have to pray that we make as many good decisions as possible and sometimes we falter. Will the Gosselin kids be adversely affected by all of this, maybe – quite possibly….and that is something that Jon and Kate will have to live with. I don’t want someone telling me everything I am doing wrong with my children and I don’t feel I have a right to tell someone else how to raise THEIR children. Do I have thoughts about things the Gosselins have said and done over the years, sure, but they are not perfect and neither am I. My issue is that there seems to be so many “PERFECT” parents out there who seem to reside on the internet and oh how I would love to be a fly on the wall in their “PERFECT” world.
And yes….technically a woman can have 14 kids and take care of them alone, but does that mean she is doing it well…..or just surviving…hello octo-mom anyone? And yes, many years ago women had many,many children…but the world is much different now…many years ago children were raised to be hired hands and help on the farm and the older children helped care for the younger ones…it was a different world – I’m not saying it was better or worse – just different.
jmax–you did say NO ONE can take care of eight children by themselves and do it well.
, but I have seen it done and I admire it.
I don’t care how much help Kate gets. Good for her!! I would in no way tell her how much help she should or shouldn’t have. But, I do have to agree that, even in our modern times, I have seen good parents with large families without help. I have two kids and can barely keep up. But I have seen moms at church and in the community with six or seven, and do a great job , without outside help. I think the point wasn’t should it be done, but can it be done. Sure it can. Not by me
I found this quote about the “chef”, from Jon-
“They pay for landscaping, they pay for craft services — which in normal terms is a chef.”
If this is the one referred to as “busting” Kate, I think it is just explaining to us “regular folk” what craft services is, not saying Kate was trying to fool us.
My statements were not to question Kate’s or anyone else’s parenting just to point out that this woman is not the poor suffering single mother of eight she is trying to portray.
Kate is the one who put herself in this situation and for her to want mine or anyone’s sympathy is ridiculous. AS for her children, they should all be in therapy.
I will not get into specifics of my family but to say that I have more than eight children and no help and my children are doing just fine, contributing members of society and a joy to be around. Even with money, will not hire someone to do what I take very seriously as mine job and that is their mother.
Thanks, Kiki. I get the same sense about the “chef” quote as you. It’s been said he criticized Kate with that and also that he PROVED an insane TRUTH correct…that there was a personal organic chef doing ALL the cooking and Kate didn’t do any. I agree with you, it’s Jon explaining craft services.
Moving on…
My statements were not to question Kate’s or anyone else’s parenting…
Diane, how can you write this? You also wrote,
“These kids are going to be at an age soon where they will expose exactly what kind of a mother Kate was and what kind of father Jon was while they are trying to pay for therapy for their misguided childhood these so-called parents caused.”
That is an indictment of the Gosselin’s (but mostly Kate’s) parenting. So is, “Kate has gone and sent the at-home mother back decades…” and, “This woman has no concept of raising eight children because she isn’t doing it…”
Yikes! Who’s doing it? The gardener? Craft services? The maid? I doubt you mean that hired help, though you seem to have a problem with Kate employing these people. Yet, they have NOTHING to do with Kate’s role as a mother, except to free up her time to spend more of it with her kids? So why object?
Do you object to her using a nanny/babysitter? Would you approve of her working as a nurse and having a daycare watch the kids and keep them until she finishes her shift? Would you approve of a babysitter picking the kids up and watching them at home until she finishes a nurse’s shift?
Okay I guess I need to clarify what I mean when I talk about Kate and her parenting or lack thereof, whichever.
I cannot question their parenting because they have made it all plain and simple for the world to see, there is no questions about their parenting—-their parenting is all about money. That is the bottom line in their life as the world has seen it and continues to see it unravel in the media, where they put it.
Problems with this woman, you bet I do as do millions of other people. She is all about the money and will do anything and now commenting on children ‘acting up’ to the media as a phase. Also now we see promos for next show where Kate will answer your questions. Come on folks, this lady is doing anything to keep this train wreck moving because when it stops, so does her fame and fortune.
My comment about the kids being at an age soon to tell the world what they felt all these years about the disruptive childhood they had is exactly what it says.
I know this is off topic, but in reading some of the comments here and elsewhere, why do some people (women) seem to think being a good mother has something to do with taking care of their “house”? So many times I hear women describe themselves as good moms because they wash clothes, cook, clean houses, do yardwork, run the kids all over etc., and I think I am an OK mom but I don’t do any of that. Are we moms confusing being a good mom with being a good housekeeper? If men traditionally don’t do any of that other stuff, does it make them bad dads?
Diane, I recognize that you have strong negative feelings about Kate, but for me, such general statements as “she has no concept of raising 8 children” or “their parenting is all about money”, make me a lot less likely to give much credence to your posts.
It is nice to have a website with different viewpoints of the Gosselin drama, but if you bash too much, you just seem like a hater.
Don’t like her (from what we know of her) but have much respect for Jon in trying to bring the extended family back into the kids’ lives. They need to see their grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and this can only be a good thing for all of them. The more time the children spend with their relatives the more comfortable they will become with them and they will find more people who love them and that is all good.
If show is continued, would love to see more involvement with the extended relatives on a regular basis, this is a reality very much lacking in this family up until lately.
Talking about good dads, etc.–a pet peeve of mine is the term used by most people when referring to fathers who spend time with their children when the mother is out of the house for whatever reason–babysitting. Yuck, we don’t use that term when it is the mother in the house with the children and dad is off to work, spending time with the guys, whatever. Anyone have a good term to use when spending time with the children whether it be the mom or dad?
Mary, thanks for the advice and will try to not be so strong in my comments about either parent.
Diane, I agree with you about calling a dad who is being a dad a “babysitter.” You are right. he’s just being a dad to his children. Great point.
Diane, I am glad I wasn’t faced with Kate’s choices this year. I know she’s made past choices I would not have made (marrying Jon Gosselin, for example.) Still, I believe she’s a good mother. I think she has cute kids, not messed-up ones. I am still amazed, when I take the time to think about it, how healthy and outgoing they are. She’s raising sextuplets. That’s just not something most moms of big families can claim they have done. It’s very rare. I believe it is normal for the mother of sextuplets younger than 6 to need help. I don’t think that sets stay-at-home moms back years, or proves that Kate parents for money (whatever that means.)
Madre, my mom raised a big family with a great husband, and she is still a fabulous homemaker. I know her work keeping our home running smoothly, cooking nutritious meals, budgeting wisely, and making sure we always had what we needed is a big part of how she was a good mother to us. She has always said she found being a homemaker to be a noble calling, and I agree. But it’s not the only way to be a mother to your kids. How could it be wrong to hire someone to clean your house, when cleaning houses is honest work? How can hiring a gardener be wrong when being a gardener is honest work? I agree with you that being a mother can be very different from being the cook or the housekeeper. Everyone gets to make that decision for herself.
Kate’s way of cleaning the twins room was very reminiscent of my cleaning my son’s room. I always told him I was getting a front end loader with a dumpster outside his window. It was my impression that she said she was leaving the stuff out for the girls to get rid of when they got home and the comment about 6 bags full was probably the end result after they picked it up, as well they should. Kate is very domineering and adding that to her self diagnosed OCD makes for someone it is often hard to relate to as I am more apt to go along with the serenity prayer, if I can’t change it or fix it, it’s not going to throw me for a loop. They both seem to usually take the kids feeling into consideration as a last resort which tends to case them in a rather poor light. And re someone’s comment about Kate not actually raising sextuplets, it is rather easy to understand the comment somewhat since she travels consistently and sometimes for rather extended periods of time. Obviously the kids are going to be acting out when their lives are in such a constant stage of upheaval. The want and need attention and a lot of the time the only one there to give it is NOT their mother or father. The lack of extended family in their life is also shown by their constant connecting to ‘any’ work people who come into the home. This makes me feel concerned that almost anyone could entice them to go with them just by being friendly to them.
I have been reading the comments about the kids acting out. Of course they are acting out. Most children do when a divorce is under way. As a child of parents divorcing I can still remember the feelings I had and some misplaced guilt in me that I was someway responsible for thier actions. There was no way I could verbalize that to my mother or father at the age close to Mady and Cara when it happened. I have stated in previous posts how my parents still would have Sunday dinners together and how my mother felt about the events that would come in our lifetime. But when I really look back those first 6 to 9 months were horrible because all that anger they had between them had not been worked out fully. Shortly after my parents got thier separate residences my dad got a girlfriend and I met her and as young child it was really hard for me to comprehend him being with another woman. It is a confusing time for the kids and when filming was stopped I think the trip to New York was on the calendar with TLC filming it. My point is that Kate had probaly told them about the trip and what they were going to do etc. Any time something big is cancelled or changed in a childs life they are going to react. I do not idolize Kate but I do admire that she is doing the best she can under the microscope that she is under. There are some choices that I have not agreed with either but I am also tired of everyone saying she is all about the money. Of course money is a big part of the picture with the divorce and that is a entirely different post that I could rant about also. To make judgement on having hired help to run a household smoothly and do have extra eyes and ears with 8 kids going full speed is nothing to be ashamed of. The rants about clothes and tanning are her choices to allow herself to feel good about her self. I certainly did that when I went thru my first divorce new hair cuts and new outfits as I dealt with the grief that comes along in a divorce. I needed to feel like a million bucks and I have no problems when anyone is going thru a divorce to do things to make them feel good about themselves, man or woman as long as it doesn’t involve drugs or drinking binges. The statement that Kate is never home is another one that upsets me. When the separation took effect she had already committed to alot of the engagements in advance. Again Kate feels very strongly about when she makes a committment to uphold it and I don’t have a problem with that. But Kate has really toned down her travel and speaking engagements to almost nothing at this point so she is not away from the children and I commend her for that also. I think the whole point of my post is to say life is a process and we when we sit still within ourselves and evaluate our own choices we see our own faults and bad choices. I think Kate is going thru that process at this time and will continue to grow as a woman and parent.