Forgotten Sleep

In full disclosure, I have watched this show a grand total of one time. I watched it because it was the episode after all the rumors about Jon’s affair surfaced, and I got sucked in. After sitting through that hour of my life that I won’t get back, I vowed never to watch anything with Jon & Kate in the title ever again.

But, despite my very best efforts, these two fame-hungry, anger-spewing pathetic excuses for parents keep wheedling their way onto television networks other than TLC. I’m so aggravated and nauseated by the sight of them, that I have to publicly say that I officially hate Jon & Kate.

As a parent, these two jokers do nothing short of piss me off. Clearly they haven’t heard about keeping your dirty laundry private and making a divorce as painless as possible for children. It’s bad enough to put one little person through an ugly divorce and scar them for life. It’s abhorrent to put eight little souls through such torment — and to drag them through it with a national audience to see, as well, is criminal. Jon & Kate need to take a step back from their hatred for each other and focus on what they really need to be thinking about: making this life shake-up as easy and as painless as they possibly can for the kids that they are supposed to be caring for.

After watching their behavior, I just don’t see how these people can go to sleep at night, knowing that they have acted so poorly and behaved so little like adults. Didn’t their own parents teach them anything or are they so greedy for a buck and such slaves to a video camera that they feel the need to display their worst characteristics for any bit of attention people are will to give them?

And the media doesn’t get a pass in the fiasco either. None of us would know or care or would follow this story if it weren’t for some jackass reporter or TV host sticking a mic in Jon’s face or clipping a lavalier to Kate’s collar and letting them spill their smelly guts all over digital creation. Why does the media need to willingly be the vehicle for the transference of crapola-on-a-screen or poo-on-paper? Perhaps we should all go into collective counseling if we have to watch Jon & Kate slash each other to pieces in order to feel better about ourselves, our lives, our marriages or our parenting abilities. If that’s the case, then we all suck.

Moreover, I’m just astonished that we keep paying attention. Haven’t we all seen this story before? Somewhere in our lives, we all know a couple who has gone through a nasty divorce, hasn’t kept their mouths shut, given their kids complexes and slobbered the details to anyone who would listen. The more we pay attention to these two media-whores, the richer they get. That can’t be something we want to promote, right? I don’t see how ignoring your children in favor of publicly humiliating their other parent is an activity worth dignifying with our acknowledgment.

Frankly, I turn off the TV, close the magazine, minimize the Web page and set it aside so I can do a puzzle with Big Girl or help Little Man learn how to walk. That makes me feel better about being a parent.