Give Kate a Chance

I was so excited to see Kate Gosselin's name at the top of my facebook "trending" list today.  After watching her family grow up on TLC, it was like seeing an old friend you forgot how much you'd missed.  I felt my nerves swell quickly though - as facebook trends are pretty limited to three things.
1 - Something Awesome
2 - Something Scandalous
3 - Something Tragic
So of course, I was super relieved to realize it wasn't something tragic.  Instead, the trend was highlighting the Today Show interview, where her oldest daughters froze up a bit during their interview.

Firstly, I have to be thankful that THIS is the world's news today.  Thank heavens this is the biggest thing all of the social media world is buzzing about.  It means that, there aren't any catastrophic events happening, violence isn't rearing it's evil head, and partisan politics have put down their boxing gloves - for the moment at least.

But I have to ask - why is the world concerned with the eloquence of two thirteen year old girls?  How many of us would have had the courage to even accept such an invitation?  I find these critiques to be totally inappropriate.  Yes, the family has spent many years in public view, and they did choose to make their appearance on the Today show.  Yet their interview says something that so many are missing.  These young ladies did what every other normal, typical, average young teen would do.  They were a little less confident in themselves than they could have been.  Doesn't this mean that they've been less effected by all the media attention than everyone likes to accuse?  If they'd stood up and given a press conference-esque interview, the media would probably remark that they were too polished due to overexposure.

All too often I ask where our culture came to a place where we were given a "right" to criticize other people.  When did our opinions of other people's parenting choices become so relevant?  I can only believe that our immersion into the online experience has emboldened us to speak our minds in ways we would have never before to someone's face.

Kate's been a major inspiration to me as a mom of multiples.  So often in the beginning, when I was juggling two babies, I'd think of her and say to myself "if she can do six, surely I can do two."  It was a motivator that I had to keep going and figure things out - there's not really any other reasonable alternative for moms.

According to Kate Gosselin's Website it looks like she's been staying busy with her most recent book - a cookbook entitled Love Is in the Mix.  Well, I'm sure that she stays busy enough as a mother of eight of course, but I'm putting in my order soon!  I'm sure her recipes are awesome but the book I'd really like to see from Kate would be a guide on how she runs her home.  She's super organized and I can only imagine I would learn an immense amount from her systems!

While it was such a bummer to see petty drama again surrounding this awesome family, I am so glad I had the chance to "bump into" the Gosselin Family via the internet today.  I can't believe how much their kids have grown up in the pictures and wish them all the future happiness, joy and success.