Jon and Kate Plus 8 - Page 2

[haleyelianasmom]

The first time I saw a show about their family (pre- "jon and Kate + 8" series) I actually thought "wow, she has 8 and her house seems more sane than our house with ONE" I guess it was the whole "I get up, go downstairs, drink coffee, and make breakfast while my twins entertain the babies" and the tight schedule they're on... like everyone takes a nap at a given time, everyone goes to bed at a given time. I guess you need that with sextuplets... no babywearing exclusive breastfeeding cosleeping with 6 babies.

Am I the only one who is slightly bothered by all the "look at my big family! I went on fertility drugs and now we have a ton of kids who are all the same age! wheeeeee!" shows?

[mamalisa]

Yea pretty much my plan of "hmmmm, what should I make for breakfast?" at 1030 wouldnt really fly with 8 kids.

[1xmom]

She is more organized than I am w/one, but I guess that's where the control freak comes in handy. And even though she seems to be a control freak - at least she admits to it.
What's up with the nap thing? Did I miss something with that?

[Cranberry]

The thing I hated about the nap is that the 6 kids must stay in their cribs until the mom goes up to get them. If any of them get out of their crib before naptime is up, they must then spend another 45 minutes in the crib. I think a 45 minute punishment is totally lost on a 2 year old... definitely a little harsh.

[Cranberry]

About when & where it's on... here's the schedule page from TLC from this week. It was on Monday.

But it's also listed here on Discovery Health, so I guess it depends on what cable stations you have.

[nolansmummy]

I love this show. I could never ever do all that she does in a day. Like the pp i whine that i have to empty the dishwasher once a day. It does suck that she's using paper, but i can't judge. She has to do what she can in order to take care of SIX kids who are 2, and then 2 older ones. I can barely keep it together with two who are three years apart. I wish i had some of the organization she does.
Her kids do all seem really happy, and you can tell she loves them all a lot.
As for how she treats her husband , thats just how their relationship is. She is the boss of the family, she is stressed. But its their relationship, not mine. Whatever works for them i guess.

[purplemama]

It finally showed up the other day on my DVR listing. Mine is on Discovery Health Channel. I got a season pass for it and look forward to watching. It won't be back on until the 29th, though.

[Cranberry]

Here's the family's website... beautiful pictures!

[BookGoddess]

I watched the show. I didn't notice the rolled up toilet paper tube. I'll have to keep a lookout for it. Could it be a toy?...Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part. I'm very into GD. I don't like the idea of the kids being swatted with a toilet paper roll. Overall, they seem like loving parents. They're pretty honest about their relationship esp him. Some of his comments make me laugh. Doesn't seem like they get a lot of personal time together as a couple but with 8 children I would imagine it's very difficult to have a date night.

My dh watched the show with me one night. It was the episode where John and his friend put up new shelving in the garage for all stuff they have. DH thought Kate was bossy to John but I honestly didn't see that. My perspective could be off-kilter for I'm somewhat bossy. Considering she's at home for nearly 12 hours by herself with that many children, I think she's quite nice to her husband.

Kate looks great for someone who has had 8 children.

I love the custom made table they have for the sextuplets. It's more practical than 6 high chairs. She's not very NFL but the kids seem to get nutritious food.

Originally Posted by haleyelianasmom

Am I the only one who is slightly bothered by all the "look at my big family! I went on fertility drugs and now we have a ton of kids who are all the same age! wheeeeee!" shows?

I know what you mean. It seems there have been a spate of such shows but in the case of John and Kate they used fertility drugs because she has polycystic ovarian syndrome and she could only conceive using medication.

[ashleyhaugh]

you can order that tableout of child care furniture catalogs i saw it in some of the catalogs the center i worked at had.... very cool... especialy when we put our 1 yr olds in chairs at a table and they spend half of every meal scooching the chairs away from the table., lol

ive seen the show once or twice- i saw the plastic surgery one, and the one where they took the twins to the american girl place- i was so jealous

[Cranberry]

Originally Posted by BookGoddess

I watched the show. I didn't notice the rolled up toilet paper tube. I'll have to keep a lookout for it. Could it be a toy?...Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part. I'm very into GD. I don't like the idea of the kids being swatted with a toilet paper roll. Overall, they seem like loving parents. They're pretty honest about their relationship esp him. Some of his comments make me laugh. Doesn't seem like they get a lot of personal time together as a couple but with 8 children I would imagine it's very difficult to have a date night.

My dh watched the show with me one night. It was the episode where John and his friend put up new shelving in the garage for all stuff they have. DH thought Kate was bossy to John but I honestly didn't see that. My perspective could be off-kilter for I'm somewhat bossy. Considering she's at home for nearly 12 hours by herself with that many children, I think she's quite nice to her husband.

I know what you mean. It seems there have been a spate of such shows but in the case of John and Kate they used fertility drugs because she has polycystic ovarian syndrome and she could only conceive using medication.

She can be seen carrying the paper tube (or whatever it is) in the garage-shelving episode when she gives one of the boys a time-out for (I think) biting one of the other kids. The other time I noticed it was during the pancake segment (or some meal?)... she gives a kid a time-out for something and she's carrying it. I may be wrong about what she has it for, and I certainly HOPE I am wrong. Spanking sucks. :

[Tilia]

Are there any new ones on? I saw there was a marathon on yesterday.

[joesmom]

I think there is a new one tonight or Tuesday, but I am not sure. The ones I watched yesterday, I had never seen before. I alternate between liking Kate, & thinking she is really snippy. I think they must edit her to make her seem even more short tempered than she is. Hopefully.

They showed one of the old Jon & Kate specials last night, & boy- both of them look a lot better now than when it started! They must've gotten a lot of negative comments about how they looked.

The kids are all SO cute, I love watching the show!

[benharperfan]

I saw it for the first time last night. It was interesting, but as a control freak myself I really thought Kate was pretty harsh!

Parts that stuck out to me:
- what a great help her sister (or is it sister-in-law) seems to be
- all the paper plates wasted (eh, at least they appear to be the cheapo thin ones but still that's a lot of waste)
- um, the SUNBLOCK comment ("I don't like sunblock, it's too greasy") - I sure hope she doesn't NOT put it on her 8 children when she takes them places!
- feeding all the kiddos from the same bowl, I thought it was funny how she has a barstool in the middle of the babies' table, and she goes from baby to baby giving them each a bite of eggs or whatever
- I was amazed that she left the kids and took a trip with her husband (although I can understand feeling the NEED to get away, but I have a hard enough time leaving my one)
- one comment really annoyed me about teaching the kids to eat with utensils. she said "i teach them not to eat with their hands. i say to them we aren't dogs" - um, i've never seen a dog eat with their hands and i felt like she was talking down to the kids (kinda like she does to jon).

and i am confused about the grocery bill thing. the one episode i saw was before she apparently had plastic surgery....she spend 1500 at costco. but them i read that she only spends 150 a week on groceries, anyone know if she just did some serious rebudgeting?

i will keep my eye out for more episodes though, it was interesting to watch.

[becoming]

I always feel sorry for Jon because of the way she talks to him -- I cringe at some of the things she says to him. I really don't think he minds, though. They have a funny little relationship.

She does seem like a control freak, but my gosh, you'd have to be! Her house runs WAY more smoothly than ours, and we only have not quite 3 kids!

They do make *beautiful* babies.

[BJewels79]

I think the grocery thing is that she spends $150 per week on certain items that need to be bought regularly, like milk, bread, etc. I think the 1500 at cosco trip doesn't happen as often from what I can remember. They do that to stock up on all sorts of things (Like cleaning supplies etc from what I remember her buying).

And while I don't agree with some of the things she does, well I am definitely not one to judge! I know DH just keeps telling me never will I take fertility drugs (I also have PCOS), because their situation is exactly what he's afraid of :

[purplemama]

Oh, I really love this show! She does seem like a total control freak (did you see that episode where she was hiring a housekeeper and after she cleaned, she wiped her finger along stuff and wasn't satisfied with her cleaning?), and she does nag a lot to Jon, but I think they have that type of relationship... he just rolls his eyes, or whatever, and once in a while, he'll get mad at her and tell her to stop.

Their kids are all so cute! What a beautiful family. One of their sons (Joel, I think, and a bit of Colin), remind me a lot of my ds2.

I hope they come out with more new episodes, I'm addicted to watching them!

[mags]

I love this show too! I think that kate can be a bit of a nag on jon, BUT their relationship is actually a lot like my DH's and mine. I'm kind of high strung, the one who always ends up having to organized, the one who plans everything, the one has to tell my DH what to do, or else he just kind of zones out and doesn't pay attn. He's a lot like jon, very laid back, wants to help, super nice, but doesn't always help in the right way or needs to be told what to do instead of just jumping in.

As for kate, I think some of you are being a little bit hard on her. I mean, um, she has a set of twin AND sextuplets! If she has to use paper plates in order to spend more time taking care of her kids... well, I think that is ok. I would be more down on someone with two kids using paper plates (if you watch any supernanny or wife swap shows, this is actually really common!). Also, as a nurse, I think she is using her skills as a nurse to stay organized with her kids and family life, in order to be an effective nurse you have to be very organized (I'm an RN). Like she says, their family thrives off of routine and being organized, you have to be organized when you are in charge of a family with that many kids of such a young age. I have two kids 18 mo apart and there are days I feel like pulling my hair out... I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes. I think, that even if she wanted to be more AP, it would just be very difficult for her. I really feel that they do the best that they can, and the kids seem to be thriving and happy. Jon and kate bicker... but I think it's in healthy way, b/c it's their way of communicating, and as they have said before, they feel that they are a team. If they just held it in and were always nice to one another, I think that would be worse. At least they are openly communicating.

[mimie]

No judgment here! I mean, the fact that they have twins and sextuplets who are alive and thriving is evidence of some pretty amazing parenting skills. I could never pull that off.

[JesseMomme]

I personally don't get why Kate would be bothered with the TV or bookshelf (or whatever it was) having not been dusted by the hired help...but I guess if you are paying someone...

Dust just doesn't bother me though.