Not many children who come from a broken family have a documented account of when their parents got divorced.  But for the 8 Gosselin children, the divorce of their parents (Jon and Kate) is inevitable and an event that will be immortalized on film forever.

Anyone who has heard of Jon and Kate Plus 8 (whether you are a fan or not), know that the couple is going through some extremely tough times.  He said-she said accounts of various affairs, monstrous attitudes, and greed have the show’s PR machine working overtime.  It seems… the more Jon and Kate fight, the higher their ratings are.

In fact, famed anti- Jon and Kate site named Gosselins Without Pity (GWOP) document every calculated move the parents of these 8 children make.  In fact, if sides are chosen in this battle… GWOP would be on Jon’s side as many of the commenters are anti-Kate.  Though, the site and the commenters remain mostly concerned for the welfare of the children, even to the point of boycotting the show in an effort to return the overexposed children back to a normal life.

Still, I have to wonder…  how normal can the lives of these children become?  It seems that their mother (Kate) now accustomed to the lavish lifestyle given to her them by the show, is determined to keep the money machine running even at the expense of her own marriage.

As fans of the show are aware, last season’s finale left a cliff hanger of sorts because Jon and Kate were on opposite sides of the fence in regards to continuing the show.  Jon definitely did not want to continue the show and Kate definitely did.

Though I rarely watch the show, the destruction of family always draws me in like a train wreck.  I can’t help but rubber-neck my way through this ordeal.  Incredulously, I watch these parents destroy the innocent lives of their children not only by overexposing them to the general public but also by exposing them to their marital strife (affairs with bodyguards, tramping around at bars, family members giving interviews about private matters between husband and wife, etc.).

Divorce and family strife is hard enough on children.  The security blanket gets ripped off at that point.  Now imagine that all of this is filmed and that you are forced to grow up sooner than you would have otherwise because you are on a television show.  41 episodes aired last season.  That’s like 20 episodes more per season than a normal television series.

I ask myself, as a mother, to what extent would I go to achieve a small amount of fame and fortune?  When does my own life trump the lives of my children and husband?  Because as we all know from watching Jon and Kate Plus 8… all of this comes at a steep price.

This weekend I learned the value of privacy and distance.  Recently, there has been underlying tension in this household.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know where it was coming from and neither did my husband.  Obviously (except to the two of us), there were things we needed to talk about.  We were getting information from a single source (who shall remain unnamed).  This single source complained about me to my hubby and then of course told me everything my hubby said.  The source maintains that it wants to be completely out of the situation and not get involved, yet there is some major instigation going on.

The sad part is, I know that this was not meant to be hurtful on either side.  I think the source was trying to “get along” rather than make trouble.  Though the end result was trouble because my husband and I were hearing things from someone else other than eachother and of course, getting mad at eachother for the things we were hearing.
In the end, we realized that it wasn’t the source’s fault (well not directly… though he should stay out of our business), but more or less our fault for not talking to eachother.

It reminds me of exactly WHY I like to keep a distance from family.  In distance I mean miles or kilometers rather than emotional distance.  Family, can be awesome and generally are awesome, UNTIL they start digging into your affairs or start to feel like they have the right to draw conclusions about your life and then proceed to tell you how to live your life.  I realize that opinions are like assholes and everyone has one and they all stink equally, but seriously… sometimes people just need to keep their opinion to themselves.  Especially if it doesn’t directly involve them.

Too often last year I gave others the power over me.  Too often, I felt guilty and ashamed and depressed and allowed others to control that.  This year, however, I have a stronger sense of self.  The last year Kellie would have felt defeated about this situation and proceeded to let people walk all over her.  This year Kellie is a much stronger woman.  I shall not have this in my household and will accept responsibility for my part but will also gladly dole out responsibility where it needs to be.  The situation will be addressed.

I have to say, that as much as I love the instigating “source”, I will be glad to see him get his own place.  Only because then we will have our privacy to our lives.  And dang it, privacy is good.  Very good.