Jon & Kate Plus 8 - My thoughts

I must admit, this is a show I only watched sporadically. Being in the den with my wife while she watches her shows is when I'd usually catch it. I don't understand reality television, so this type of show generally isn't my forte.

But I did get acquainted with the show enough to understand the rub the current season is having on its fans. In four years, fans have essentially watched the Gosselin's young sextuplets go from infancy into almost their school years.

And I must concede, I think Aiden is an adorable child. You can see he is going to grow into a little geek, a title that used to be derogatory, but is now practically synonymous with fame and fortune.

This show did bear some redeeming characteristics from other reality television programs. For starters, the situations shown were not fake or manufactured. They depicted real life. Birthdays, trips to the doctor, trips to the dentist, vacations, picnics, and general domestic situations marked the average episode. No fake drama. No one to vote off the island (Now there's an unfortunate choice of words). No back-stabbing. It was all real.

Regarding the popular scandal associated with the show, in all honesty, I saw something like this coming. One doesn't put their entire family into the public eye without experiencing the cruel consequences of public life. And Jon obviously didn't have the constitution to deal with it. Jon's mistake is obvious, and has been exploited enough by the press. His deed is done. As of now, I can't really blame Jon. He messed up, but Kate is not helping matters. The question I now ask is why Kate is pushing so hard to keep this show on the air? Doesn't she realize her family is in a crisis and needs to deal with this privately? This is what I don't understand. What is she hoping to accomplish in leaving the show on for another season? Hopefully, SURELY, she doesn't regard the show, which was most likely the catalyst in destroying their marriage, as the very mechanism she needs to preserve it. Does she think that Jon will do the right thing on camera, where he might not otherwise? This tells me she does not take Jon's opinion seriously. He has voiced his objection to the show before. What in the world is she thinking by continuing the show through this ordeal?

Another issue I take is that the show has always went out of the way to propound the Gosselin's Christianity. This has become a reproach to the faith. A reproach that could easily be resolved by not continuing the series, and simply releasing a press-conference saying that the show is canceled until further notice. As long as the show is running, they will have paparazzi and tabloid articles to deal with. They need to purge themselves from this and deal with their domestic problems as a family. If they are indeed Christians, they do not need their dirty laundry aired in public. They need to deal with this like Christians, which certainly involves turning the cameras off.

Besides, once the public loses interest, which they will inevitably do after the show is off for a season, the pop-culture's press will too.

What about all the children, young girls with whom, perhaps, Kate was their only pattern for being a mother, or young boys, who was learning from Jon how to be a father? They have destroyed their confidence. Whether this family maintains cohesion, or explodes into a messy divorce, one thing is for certain, it needs to go off the air! We don't need this type of dysfunction perpetuated into subsequent generations, especially under the umbrella of Christianity.