Tag Archive for: Jon and Kate Plus Eight

Reflection Back to Younger Years

/in /by

After a posted a comment to the Jon and Kate Reality TV show I got to thinking back about what life was like when I was a fairly young mom and my kids were all at home. Would I have done a reality TV show?

Since my kids are in their late forties and fifties I’m talking about a long, long time ago. There was no such thing as reality TV.

I don’t remember how it happened, but somehow I became friends with the society page editor of the local newspaper. One time she came to the house to write an article and take pictures of all of us getting ready in the morning.

We lived in a three bedroom, two bath tract home. The bathroom with the shower was called the boys’ bathroom, for hubby and the two boys; the other one with the tub was the girls’ bathroom. And yes, we all got ready in the morning together.

Hubby had to be in uniform at the Seabee base and the boys ready for school. The action in the girls’ bathroom was a bit more exciting, since girls always do more with make-up and hair–and they all went to school too. I have no idea what my pursuits were at the time of the story, but probably I was busy with PTA since I was president 4 years in a row at two different schools.

I also had a Camp Fire Girls group and I know I managed to get lots of publicity for the group too as we were always earning money for some camping trip or another. Our group was unique as we had girls from all different ethnic backgrounds as members. Our final trip when the girls were seniors was by our own Greyhound Bus to the Grand Canyon–and we earned every dime for that trip. None of the girls came from families who could afford to subsidize them.

For ten years I worked part time in a pre-school for developmentally disabled kids–and I have an old newspaper clipping of me doing physical therapy with my class.

So, looking back, there’s a pretty good chance I might have agreed to a reality TV show if there’d been such a thing at the time. No doubt people would have been critical of me too because I was every bit as bossy as Kate–still am. Like Jon, hubby didn’t pay a heck of a lot of attention to what I had to say.

And believe me we were far from perfect. The kids did things that scared us, made us worry, shook us to our core and I talked about everything to my best girlfriends. Hubby and I definitely had our faults too–lucky for us we managed to work through them since we’re still together after the tumultuous times of raising our kids.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about and I suppose I should be thankful there was no reality TV back then, because if there had been and people watched us and made all the comments that are being made about Kate and Jon–we probably wouldn’t have made it either.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com

More Thoughts in a Murky Stream

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It’s not easy coming up with a blog topic each week. Or at least settling on one good one. Every week, I leave it until Tuesday or Wednesday and then in a slight panic, get my Thursday blog written. The more panic, the better my writing. Crazy huh?

It’s Tuesday night and I’m writing these words as I listen to the local 10:00 pm news. My co-author suggested that I do a blog about Supreme Court Nominee Sonya Sotomayor’s reported fondness for Nancy Drew books. But I peeked at Maggie Barbieri’s scheduled Wednesday blog and found she’d beaten me to the punch. (If you haven’t read her blog yet, just scroll down and you’ll find it below this blog entry.) Hey! I didn’t mean look at it right this minute! I’m working here!

So back to my topic this week. These are my four remaining choices:

Dumpster Babies – A couple of days ago a newborn baby was found in a dumpster in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Sapulpa is a bedroom community of Tulsa. The baby whimpered and someone cleaning up the day after a veterans’ event heard the sounds. The baby was okay. A miracle. But also a tragedy. Oklahoma has a law that allows babies less than seven days old to be left at any hospital, fire department, police station etc. with no questions asked. Hard to believe any mother would put a baby in the trash instead. In this day and age even scared teens know there are other options.

My Big Office Move Part II – It will be Thursday when this blog is posted. The next day, on Friday, the moving van shows up to relocate my “day job” office to a new building. This new building is just new to us. It’s an older building that has been gutted and remodeled to meet our needs. Eventually, it will be a wonderful place to spend my weekdays – but as of today it has no windows, no doors, no sheetrock, and I’m beyond panic. I think everything is going to go into storage pods and I’ll be working from home or my car for the next two weeks. Sometimes I could do with less adventure in my life.

Last Two Books I Read for Fun – Over the holiday weekend I read Nevada Barr’s Borderline and Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child’s Cemetery Dance. Both are good, but since I’m not into Zombies, I enjoyed Nevada Barr’s murderous raft trip in West Texas best.

Jon & Kate Plus Eight Season Premiere – I confess I watched. I’m not proud of myself. Those kids are absolutely being exploited for the parents’ fame and fortune. My co-author has given me many good reasons why this show is a bad thing. But you know, like train wrecks, you just can’t help looking. Or at least I can’t. The recent tabloid reports about the couple’s alleged marital infidelities, made this premiere one of those “gotta watch” episodes. I mean, just last season, the couple renewed their wedding vows in Hawaii while the kids stood behind them arguing loudly over the leis. Just goes to show that if you have eight kids, six of whom are less than five, you can’t count on the trip down the aisle going smoothly. And, I’m thinking renewing those vows, was kind of like tempting fate. Monday night’s new episode was full of tear-filled, lower lip trembling, angst. That was Kate. Jon was belligerent and he looked like he’d spent way too much time in the sun somewhere while wearing goggles. I swear I could see the goggles outline on his dark red face. Did Jon have an affair? Did Kate have an affair? And the most important question, will Kate have to plan all future over-scheduled, media event parties for her kids on her own, or rather without Jon? (She seems to have plenty of other people to help her, and if not, she could scale down the events. No kid really needs rented bouncy tents, a magician, and piñatas for their fifth birthday party.)

Okay, this blog is done. I’m putting a fork in it. You have my permission now to scroll down and read Maggie’s blog. And don’t miss Marilyn’s blog from Tuesday. She’s just back from Mayhem in the Midlands. (I would have gone to that conference too – but you know – there was this office move to deal with. Sigh.)

Rhonda
aka The Southern Half of Evelyn David
http://www.evelyndavid.com/