KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (11 page)

What was Ayn Rand’s view on charity?

[From “Playboy’s 1964 interview with Ayn Rand”]:

“My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.”

Given Kate’s actions, can we surmise that she does, in fact, share Rand’s beliefs, and that her carefully crafted image of Christian mom was just an elaborate façade to scam people? Or is it simply that Kate’s laziness
and stupidity caused her to include on her website a quote from a person many would find offensive and intolerable? You can draw your own conclusions.

(Note:
In late March 2013, Kate removed all the quotes from her website’s Home page and began using that space to promote her new [old] cookbook,
Love Is In The Mix: Making Meals Into Memories with 108+ Family-Friendly Recipes, Tips and Traditions
, due out in September of 2013.)

This is not the only example that runs counter to Kate’s Christian image.
In July of 2012, while being interviewed on local radio station Y-102 in Reading, PA, Kate was asked if she had read the book
Fifty Shades of Grey
, and she answered that, yes, she had, in fact, read it.
Fifty Shades of Grey
is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism and masochism (
BDSM
).

It is probably safe to say that this book did not make any of the Christian bestseller lists. It most certainly is not a book Zondervan, the Christian publisher of Kate’s books, would ever touch.

I wonder if Kate would have admitted to reading a book like that a few years ago when she was fleecing kind, trusting church members out of their hard-earned money, all the while preaching the word of God with her hand out.

Kate will insist over and over on Twitter that she hasn’t changed, though.

“Whoever claims to understand God is either arrogant or needs a psychiatrist.

It contradicts the whole idea of God.
”

– Father Karl,
Stift Heiligenkreuz Abbey

“Stand with me or stand against me!”

– Kate Gosselin

Kate Gosselin’s world is a very unsettling place. Anyone who has ever crossed paths with Kate knows that she speaks, acts and believes that she is better than everyone else. She knows better than her ex-husband, Jon. She knows better than her eight children. She knows better than her parents; and her siblings; and her cousins, nieces and nephews. She knows better than doctors and lawyers and television executives, and she sure as Hell knows better than the people who watch her television shows and follow her on Twitter. This is Kate Gosselin’s reality world.

Kate would like everyone to believe that she has many friends; however, despite her desperate tweeting to the contrary, she has no real friends at all. She has paid employees like her bodyguard Steve Neild, or paid friends like Jamie Cole Ayers. She likes it that way, though. She likes to be in control. She has said this herself numerous times throughout her television shows and during interviews.

Kate has banished everyone of any importance from her life, and the lives of her children, because they “had opinions of their own” about how to raise her children, or save her marriage, or anything really for that matter. Kate does not want to hear any opinion other than her own. Rather than hire an experienced, professional nanny with knowledge of how to raise and care for children properly, Kate hires high school and college-age girls who would be intimidated to volunteer any of their own thoughts on the children, let alone disagree with anything Kate has to say.

Kate does not tolerate anyone telling her anything that goes against what she wants. “Stand with me or stand against me!” she infamously told Jon during a filmed discussion in the family’s garage.

Kate’s parents; her siblings; Jon’s family; Judy the nanny; Bob and Beth Carson: all gone. The children’s father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their favorite caregiver: all gone from their daily lives. This 2012 tweet from Kate responding to one of her tweeties sums up all you need to know about why this is:
Don’t question my mothering – thanks!

The remainder of this chapter provides a small glimpse into the mind and world of Kate Gosselin. It gives examples of Kate’s interactions with people, and clearly illustrates not only her extraordinary sense of entitlement and self importance, but her eagerness to paint herself as a victim.

KATE VERSUS THE STATE

In 2005, while fighting to retain a free, full-time nurse to care for her children, Kate Gosselin told the State of Pennsylvania in a letter that her children were disabled. Here is that letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is in reference to the adverse determination as described in PA number 0433410338.  (Please see enclosed letter)

              We are appealing the decision made and desire to continue services during the appeal process.

              We have eight children four years old and under. Our six youngest are 11 months old.  In a sense
our children
(our six 11 month olds) are disabled.
  They cannot feed themselves, transport themselves up and down stairs or at all, bathe themselves, get a drink when they are thirsty, go to the bathroom by themselves, put themselves to bed or dress themselves.

              Furthermore, and extremely dangerously, they do not know right from wrong or safe from unsafe.  They will put anything of choking hazard size in their mouths, climb up or fall down any of the 4 flights of stairs (if the gate has been left open by our 4 year olds), pinch their fingers in anything they touch and shouldn’t, pull each other down, or poke each others eyes!

              Any one person cannot safely care for and keep eight children from danger, 12 hours per day, 5 days per week!

              Take for instance bath time…How does one person have “X” number of babies in the tub, monitor the ones still in the tub while diapering and going to retrieve the next baby?  Safely, that’s impossible!

              How does one person take 3 babies to the doctor, with no one to help and find a third capable person to watch the five children I’ve left behind?  Each doctor’s appointment?  Nearly Impossible!

              How does one person care for my six 11 month olds while effectively meeting the needs of 2 dear 4 year olds whose needs have been “put aside” all day, day after day?  They have been patiently waiting their turns…which never come because one person is busily scurrying around to care for the babies needs which supersede their own!

              How does one person take 8 children for a walk?  Two strollers and 2 walking 4 year olds?  A “normal” thing for any child?  Impossible!  How does one person care for all 8 children while never leaving the house for things that are very important such as 320 diapers weekly, 13 cases of formula per month, 112 jars of baby food per week not to mention, all the “normal” necessities or preschool drop-offs or pickups!  Completely impossible!  Literally, we will be completely HOUSEBOUND!

              How does one person effectively evacuate eight children from 4 different rooms in the case of a fire?  Or how does one person care for an injured bleeding child while 7 others are left unattended?  Absolutely unsafe!

              And have we forgotten one thing?  One stability in our constantly hectic, crazy lives?  Continuity of care!  “Community Resources”—a list of college students or high school students available “here and there” as their schedules allow, who when other things come up aren’t afraid to cancel on us – thus leaving my children to wait for lunch or my 4 year olds home form preschool for lack of transportation.  “Community Resources” – elderly ladies who cannot lift one 20 lbs. baby let alone 6 and who certainly cannot do stairs while carrying one or two babies!  Baths are out of the question!

              Where will I find this person to walk in, take over for minimal pay as a home health aide, who we as parents trust, who our children trust and love and who will be able to on a whim do what 9 months (with our nurse) of history has built?  Exactly my point!  By the time May 30 rolls around, a new person, will just be scratching the surface of learning our daily routine and handling the many time management challenges!  That is all too exhausting and unworth it for me and my family!

              The past 9 months have run very safely and smoothly because of our constant caregiver, Angie.  Thanks to our approval through Medicaid.  Thank you!  We can’t thank you enough for the amount of sanity in our crazy and unusual world, but we still need that same help now.

              I am a very capable person and mother.  I pride myself in organization, cleanliness and all American fun!  However, at this stage in our lives, this task is bigger than even me!

              I hate asking for help but for the safety of each of my precious children, I must ask, because I love them.  I need the constant care of our nurse Angie to continue!

              The previous scenarios are things I worry and pray about constantly.  I am thankful that none of them have happened and pray that our care will continue to help ensure that they won’t happen.

              Please come and spend some time in our home so you can see that what I’m telling you is true!

              If it is possible to hold our hearing in Reading, I would like to attend in person.  However, I strongly desire a home visit so that a clear picture can be demonstrated.

Sincerely,

Kate and Jonathan Gosselin

First, it would do Kate some good to sit down at her computer and do some research on children with disabilities to find out what it’s like for people who really have a disabled child.

Kate’s words in this letter make her sound not just unbelievably stupid, but shockingly removed from reality. It would almost be amusing if it
weren’t so truly pathetic. What Kate describes as disabilities are the characteristics of being a baby. Any baby. Every baby. No, babies can’t feed themselves or bathe themselves or dress themselves or go to the bathroom by themselves. They’re babies. That’s part of the package. Did that somehow come as a surprise to Kate? As a registered nurse, surely somewhere along the line someone must have mentioned to her that she would be responsible for taking care of those needs.

That letter also speaks to Kate’s arrogance and sense of entitlement. It suggests that she had no intention of taking on the burden of caring for the children she actively set out to create, and expected others to do it for her.

Never one to take no for an answer, Kate went straight to the top of the local political scene, enlisting Senator Mike O’Pake to speak to the welfare department on her behalf, when her free nurse, Angie Krall, was taken away after 9 months of waiting on Kate and the kids.

Dear Secretary Richman:

I have been contacted by Mr. and Mrs. Gosselin regarding their sextuplet’s Medical Assistance benefits and need for in-home childcare.

The Gosselin family is composed of Mr. and Mrs. Gosselin, a set of 4-year old twins and 9-month old sextuplets who were born on May 10, 2003. In October 2004 the Department of Public Welfare had informed the family that they would no longer be eligible for in home care. On appeal the decision was reversed and a special exemption was provided “due to the number of babies.” Now the family has again been informed that in home services will be terminated, effective April 30, 2005. Since receiving notification, they have attempted to secure childcare through the Child Care Information Service of Berks County only to be informed that they are not eligible due to not meeting the work requirements. Mr. and Mrs. Gosselin find themselves in a quandary, as it is physically impossible for Mrs. Gosselin to be employed outside the home and care for her eight children. However, they are also unable to afford in home care on Mr. Gosselin’s income.