Post by laurenj on Aug 25, 2016 16:51:11 GMT -4
I can hate on Kate for a lot of things, but I've never once questioned her live for her children. I hope for Collin's sake his situation improves, and he gets whatever help he needs.
Yeah, I read that too. Not that Jon was ever a model of self-motivation, but his attitude toward custodial visits seemed remarkably lazy. "Whoever gets off the bus" probably gets to sit in a messy one-bedroom apartment watching him play video games for a weekend.
I'm not a parent, but if Kate is being honest, it sounds like a last resort option. If Collin got expelled from school, and she tried other options, I don't blame her for sending him away. Maybe the giant family--eight kids and one parent--was part of the problem, or maybe he was harming the other siblings, or maybe his problems are far more severe than she wants to acknowledge publicly. I read 'special needs' as more of a psychiatric situation, too. I know residential care for adolescents is a difficult proposition, but it's possible it was warranted.
I have seen this approach work very well and honestly wish my own parents had considered this. There was a family I knew that had only two kids but the oldest one had serious emotional/behavioral issues and as a result, the younger one was extremely quiet and skittish due to the turmoil in the house. The older son went away to what I guess was something like a military school and he benefited a lot from the discipline. Plus, the younger son blossomed from both the lack of constant conflict and the fact that the parents were finally able to give some attention to him. As someone who had an older sibling whose issues kind of dominated everyone's lives during a pivotal developmental time, I can't help wondering how things might have been different for all of us (including her) if something more drastic like this had been tried.
I don't know what's going on with this family. It's not like you can force teenagers to do something they don't want to do - but the custodial parent is supposed to support the relationship between the kids and the non-custodial parent. I have a feeling Kate is not doing this. The twins are at an age where many kids start rebelling against the custodial parent in favor of the non-custodial parent, so they must really hate their father.
Yeah, I can't imagine that Kate is supporting the kids' relationship with Jon at all, she can barely speak his name without snarling. Nor does Jon appear to really be fostering any kind of relationship with them either though, so he's not helping his case.
As far as Kate making money from a People magazine article, I say go for it. She is raising 8 kids on her own and is determined that all of them further their education and succeed in life. It's been years since she had a regular income from TLC or some other entertainment venture, but she's managed to keep her 8 kids in the same home and in private school ever since. That's no small feat. That being said, if she went out of her way to exploit Collin's story to make a buck rather than it being a situation where she had no choice because she had to cut someone to the chase, that would be disgusting and inexcusable.
I just don't think it's helpful to Collin in any way. It's definitely possible that Jon or someone else was threatening to share the story, in which case I can see wanting to get out ahead of it, but was a cover story really necessary?
Especially one with a giant family photo in which he's conspicuously absent? That just seems a bit cruel.
As for money, she's a pretty shrewd woman. She's made a lot of money over the years and seems like the type to meticulously manage it. I do give her credit for that, but it also makes me think she really didn't need to go for the big splashy cover story as a means to make money for basic support.
