KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (50 page)

MOVIE NIGHT

This woman is her own worst enemy and a PR person’s worst nightmare. Luckily for Laurie Goldberg, PR guru at Discovery Communications, Kate Gosselin is no longer her problem.

On one particular Friday and half of the Saturday after, all eight Gosselin kids were with their father. That Saturday night when her kids returned home to Kate, what do you think was the first thing this loving mother who missed her children would be anxious to do? Escape to Twitter, of course!

Kate went straight to Twitter to tell her followers that they were having a “family movie night!” at home. She tweeted a picture of the movie they were going to watch, along with photos of the kids all lined up and evenly spaced out on “the stripe” (otherwise known as the edge) of the rug on the floor in front of the TV. The kids must sit along “the stripe” so Kate doesn’t have to worry about any popcorn spilling on her rug. While the kids are made to sit in that oh-so-comfortable configuration, Kate lounges on a cushiony sofa behind them, drinking wine…and tweeting. Kate tweeted 114 tweets during that particular “family movie night.”

In her Twitter frenzy, she stupidly became engaged in a back and forth about why she doesn’t take the kids out to the movie theater instead of staying at home. She opened up this particular can of worms when she wrote about movies being expensive, and then got defensive and angry when a tweetie continued to question her. This was the start of the great Twitter movie war:

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Just saw The Lorax!!!! Will be buying the DVD!! Cried like a baby at the end!! Such a HUGE message so beautifully done!!

I’ll put in on my list to get when out on DVD. Movie theater is $$$ and hard to do for us!:) Thanks for review!

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Great movie! Sounds like fun nght planned. But I don't get why u don't take kids to
movie theatre? U have money.

…We all have money. It’s in our personal choices on how to spend it that counts… Have a good day!

Why did Kate even engage in this conversation in the first place? Because she is just too stupid to know any better. She never thinks about the possible consequences of her words before she says them. This is a very wide-open window into the amount of influence Discovery had in controlling the message that came out of her mouth for the years she was under contract with them. When the Discovery contract expired, Kate was on her own with little oversight, and she became totally unplugged.

Kate’s personal choice on how to spend the money her kids made for her is to treat herself like a first-class Hollywood starlet, sparing no expense on anything that’s for her. Kate sits in her mansion with her $200,000 in cars parked in the driveway and garage, enjoys her glamorous, first-class trips around the world and her millions of dollars in investments tucked away in her many accounts, and her $800-a-day personal bodyguard, etc., but she can’t take her children to see a movie in a theater because it’s too expensive.

AND THE TWEET GOES ON

Here are some of Kate’s Twitter thoughts where she criticizes other mothers and crows about her own great, personal accomplishments:

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 How does Kate deal every day???

A mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do. Love motivates me to do my best no matter how I feel :)

xxxxx @
Kateplusmy8
Would you ever sign them up to dance ? Could you be a “dance mom?” LOL! Happy Sunday!

Um dance.. Yes. Um those horrible Dance moms? Never ever ever!

xxxxx @
Kateplusmy8
it's amazing what you have done for your kids some people may judge u but u wouldn't be able to provide half as much as a nurse

Correct! Thanks for recognizing that I am doing BEST I can for my kids. They have a wonderful life..It’s my greatest accomplishment!:)

Then
there is this gem where Kate strays from her script that she is the perfect, most organized mother on the planet:

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Morning Kate! Are you recouped from the baking frenzy? LOL working here today but back at it tomorrow. Have a gr8 day!

Yes, I slept so well last night I forgot to set my alarm clock. Two days alarm clock’s name was Leah :) Thank goodness for conscientious child.

Two days in a row Kate had to be awakened by a first-grader…on school days. And she proudly announced this online to the world. No worries. Kate knows that her fans will make excuses for her.

“It was truly the sweetest thing I had ever witnessed…”

Kate Gosselin has eight children. You’ve probably picked up on that by now. She’s been a mother since 2000, so it’s probably safe to assume that she has seen and experienced countless sweet and precious moments from and with her kids. Someday, when her children read her writings and see the above quote from her, they might be a little taken aback to learn that the sweetest thing their mommy ever witnessed had nothing to do with any one of them; instead, it was about an animal in another country.

That quote came from Kate’s blog, “Dear Honey,” which she posted on November 18, 2011. Kate was referring to the time she was moved to tears as she held Honey, the koala bear, while filming for the Australia episode. It was very touching. She showed a lot of emotion toward that little bear; more than she has ever shown toward any of her children at any time during seven seasons of filming a reality show.

We could simply chalk
the statement up to Kate’s overblown hyperbole. Unfortunately, her kids have to live without any of the warm, genuine affection their mom gave to a bear.

UNDER THE BBBUS

On November 3, 2001, radaronline.com posted the following story about Kate Gosselin.

Kate Gosselin Slammed By Child Safety Group After Her Son Is Seen Playing Under her Van

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/11/kate-gosselin-son-plays-under-wheels-her-van-danger-child-safety-group-photos/

Not only did Kate stay in the van as one of her boys crawled underneath to retrieve something with his head right behind the front wheel, but the engine was running the entire time. A mishap could have resulted in death for her child but she stayed in the van texting.

NO GUIDANCE

Kate Gosselin keeps her children as isolated from the world around them as she possibly can. She wants people to only know about her children what she tells them and nothing more. I learned that the Gosselin children are not permitted to meet with their school’s guidance counselor, at all, for any reason. Kate is afraid they will be asked questions about their home life that she absolutely does not want answered.

A SAD TRUTH

In a child’s first 5 to 7 years of life, 80% of their personality, morals, values and self-identity are formed. Given this statistic, how does Kate Gosselin rate as a parent instilling morals, values and self-identity in her impressionable, young children? Based on the following tips on personality development found through online research, not very well. Not very well at all. She fails at all twelve bullet points:

Tips on personality development of the child

• Do not scold the child all the time for minor failures.
  

• Do not trouble the child constantly.
  
• Avoid frequent use of bitter or harsh remarks.
  
• Avoid the practice of preferring one child over the other and thereby neglecting the other.
  
• Do not denigrate or disparage the child.
  
• Avoid prolonged separation of the child.
  
• Constant friction with the child or between the parents should not be expressed in front of the child.
  
• Never discourage the child.
  
• Do not praise your child always.
  
• Excessive discipline is also harmful.
  
• Repetitive or severe punishment should be avoided. The child should be given a chance to rectify him/herself, and punishment should be the last resort.
  
• Parents should not be over-ambitious regarding their children, and they should not set goals for a child which are not in harmony with his or her intellectual endowment, capabilities, achievements and interests.