Friday, February 6, 2009

Multiple Babies

Yes, I am referring to the woman here in California who recently gave birth to octuplets. I was okay with this news at first, and really could not care less...you know, another multiples family in the media.
I did not care until the news became personal. Suddenly this womans birth to her multiples became a personal attack on single mothers who chose to have a child without a husband. Somehow this woman's octuplets became not something to rejoice, but a sinister act because she did not have a husband, and GASP! wanted to do it on her own. People have been accusing her of being crazy, selfish, and abusing the system. Really, she is just a single woman who wants children.
The media have made sure that her marital status makes these children not to be rejoiced, but scorned. Hey, John and Kate can have a TV show, and so can the Duggers, because they are the "traditional" couples that the media wants everyone to see. But a woman who wants children so badly that she would have 14 on her own, using a mans sperm...is cause for an uproar and the accusation that her wanting a show is somehow misabusing the system? It pisses me off.
Yes, her doctor was wrong to transfer 6 embies. Just like Kate's doctor was wrong in doing an insemination knowing how many follicles Kate had and her risk for multiples. Instead of scorn for carrying so many babies, she gets a show on TV. Oh, thats right she is married, so her having a TV show is okay.
Mrs. Dugger can have 17 children, so many for her to rear that she has to have the older children parent the younger ones. All the while she continues to have more and more. Oh ya, they have a TV show too, and they are married, so it is okay for TV to capitalize on their novelty.
Now suddenly there is another woman, who like the Duggers and John/Kate wanted children. She now has 14, and maybe she could have a show too. The idea that she wants to be on TV is suddenly considered repugnant because OMG she has no spouse! She did this on her own! OMG how could she do this on her own? who paid for it? She must have been taking advantage of the system somehow, and now she wants a show so she can help pay for her children? Isn't this terrible?
Not any more terrible than the other shows about multiples we all have watched and think nothing about.
This woman is being judged harshly because of her decision to keep trying for kids as a single mother. For sacrificing everything to have more. For WANTING more children, like we all do, single or not. I have heard her called abnormal. I have heard her called Obsessive-Compulsive. All because she wants a large family as a single parent. No one calls the Dugger mom these things. No one calls Kate these things.
What the hell is wrong with people?

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