Jon and Kate plus Puke

Have you seen the show? Jon and Kate plus Eight truly have the cutest 8 kids on TV. Hands down, but it has spiraled into a tragic slow-motion train wreck I can't watch anymore.

My opinion, obviously.

When I first started watching, the kids were little and the show was great for one reason- the kids were freakin cute as hell. My own kids were now teenagers and those days when they were babies are a blur for me. Having 1 set of multiples with a 2 year old at the time, I clearly understood the juggling act required to make sure everyone was fed, had clean diapers, and nobody was killed at the end of each day. This family has 1 set of twins plus sextuplets. This is incredible. I had the utmost respect for the necessity of of the practical that Kate Gosseling displays. Yes, she can be a bit condescending and I certainly have no appetite for her religious views, but she ran that household like a well oiled machine which is admirable but to top it off- she has the patience of a saint. The noise level alone would have had me drinking vodka and crying at 10:am- but not Kate! Jon seems like a heck of a nice guy- laid back and calm. Jeez- a perfect partner for Kate's OCD methodology. He understood her strengths and enjoyed his kids- nice to watch. And those kids- happy -giggling- adorable.

Don't believe me? Check them out:

http://http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/jon-and-kate/jon-and-kate.html

So what happened? Well, for one thing, Jon quit his job in IT which meant he was home 24/7. The show became so popular that the Gosselins had an opportunity to generate income that could support these 8 kids for a very long time- we all would have taken this chance, trust me. My own marriage deteriorated rapidly during the early years and it was expedited by financial troubles. I would have jumped on this chance just like the Gosselins. Kate likes to write? Great! Lets sell books too- more money for college. But these choices dropped Jon down a rung so he was no longer the bread winner. Inevitable, for sure, but the couple did not adjust for this and that is what ultimately caused the break up.

I knew it was over when I saw the episode they renewed their wedding vows.

I have learned that men need to feel useful as much as women do- and if they do not feel appreciated, they will leave- one way or another. Kate has a habit of barking orders and I can relate because I am the same way. We don't intend to be bossy, but we have so much internal pressure to 'get it right' that we forget our manners. Kate forgot how to preserve Jon's place as the head of the family even if it is in name only.

And Jon forgot how to communicate his feelings to prevent the backlash. For too many years it looks like he let her run things and he felt unappreciated for a long time. At some point he made some choices that you cannot erase. Now it is too late. All he had to do was speak up, but now he has a label of being a party boy, Kate is trying to salvage the show and still have a life and the tabloids are acting like pirrannahs. The drama and bickering became the focus of the show and that didn't help.

So what now? The show is losing Jon and will focus on Kate as a single mom. That may work, but I don't think it will ever be the same. Kate has the skills to run a Fortune 500 company and maybe the Gosselin empire could become that someday, but me? I miss the kids. Yeah, they are still on, but we don't get to see them at ground level anymore. We watch activities now, not the individual children .

Too bad. Those kids are still cute.