Kate Gosselin - Mother of the Year

[Curious]

According to Kate that makes him the worse parent because "her kids deserve better than what a nursing job" will give them/

The famous (or infamous) "mediocre" comment :)

They deserve more, yet she doesn't give them more. No one seems to notice that, though. She won't take them to the movies (because it will cause panic). She won't give them gymnastics lessons (it's too expensive).

It seems like those are exactly the kinds of things they should be getting since they deserve more.

Yet, they seem to be her personal maids are do little but school and chores. In the people issue they were just in, she (apparently proudly because why else would you tell anyone this) said that the twins have a 52 point housecleaning checklist.

Let me say that again. The 12 year old twins have a 52 point housecleaning checklist. They do earn an salary allowance of $1 per chore, but they also lose $1 if they don't have the proper attitude while doing the chores or if the chores are not done to Kate's exacting standards.

She also said that pool maintenance is one of the kids chores. I find that terribly frightening. That is not a safe thing for 9 and 12 year old to be doing. That should be done by a professional or at the very least an adult.

[Curious]

If the kids are in school all day, what does she do with her time?

Good question. No one seems to really know. She says she works, but since her current job is blogging once a week for the Stir and the blogs seem like they are written in about 5 minutes right before they are due (and are about as good and accurate as a fictional) it's anyone's guess.

She does tweet a lot. Then there is her fake baking, mani/pedis, hair frying, trips to target and I suppose a lot of grifing via email and probably phone calls to people asking why they haven't gotten her back on tv yet.

That can't really take up 9 hours 5 days a week though. She probably goes back to bed after dropping the kids at the bus stop since they have to be there so early for their 45 minute (or maybe it's an hour) ride to school. That probably eats up a few hours every day.

[Palimpsest]

OMG. Kate Gosselin is in the headlines again. Say it ain't so! Those poor children.

I have enough non-celebrity cases in which ex-spouses hack computer accounts, misuse nanny cams, get cell phone records and generally use all sorts of devious ways to get information (often illegally) about their exes, that this wouldn't particularly surprise me. [Not all information is always obtained illegally - a surprisingly number of people don't realize that a cell phone or internet/email account may technically be under their spouse's account, or that iPhones may store all sorts of files in the Cloud which then get accessed from your family's other Apple devices, or that Facebook is not private, etc.]

If it's true, I'd say that nobody - not even if they were a bitch during the marriage - deserves an illegal invasion of privacy.

I do question the wisdom of the lawsuit, only because it could draw more negative attention.

I'd agree with you on the invasion of privacy issue, but you'd think that would have come out during the divorce. That seemed to go on for ever and any illegally obtained stuff would have been used then. No?

I haven't really followed the Gosselins since the amendment to the Child Labor laws passed in PA, but I'd agree with Curious's assessment on a lot of this. I also did a bit of reading over the weekend to catch up. I am so not a lawyer but I'm fascinated by lawsuits! The contents of the suit filed in Federal court didn't make much sense to me.

Apparently Kate first brought up the hacking allegations over a year ago and it was covered in the press. Shouldn't she have filed suit immediately she discovered both the hacking and the theft? By now she must be near the Statute of Limitations on identity theft, theft of computer drives, discs and other documents in any court.

I'm also a bit embarrassed to admit that I bought the original Hoffman book and it is still on my Kindle. It was pretty dreadful. Very repetitive and badly written so I ended up just skimming it. Then I took a shower or two. Strangely, and unless and until proven otherwise, I actually believe Hoffman when he says he found all that stuff in the trash. Kate lacks impulse control and I can see her dumping anything and everything Jon left behind into the garbage in a rage and without considering the consequences. I suspect Jon may have tipped Hoffman off, but that is all.

I feel so sorry for the children caught up in all of this mess.

[formergothardite]

I don't even have a 52 point housecleaning checklist for myself. I don't think we are filthy, but I'm probably not up to Kate's standards.

[Curious]

I'd agree with you on the invasion of privacy issue, but you'd think that would have come out during the divorce.

Apparently Kate first brought up the hacking allegations over a year ago and it was covered in the press. Shouldn't she have filed suit immediately she discovered both the hacking and the theft?

...I actually believe Hoffman when he says he found all that stuff in the trash.

I feel so sorry for the children caught up in all of this mess.

I snipped some stuff out of your post since my posts are always long. I did snip a bit too far though. Jon didn't have to tip Hoffman off. Robert Hoffman was the person that Jon called to help him move out of the apartment above the garage when Kate decided that he had to move NOW! It was raining that night and Kate wouldn't let Jon wait to move. She called the police because Robert was there. There was a police report filed, according to Robert. So he knew that the stuff that was left was going to be thrown out (since Kate told them that). So he went there before trash pick up that week. He'd been going through her trash for a while at that point, I believe.

Kate tried to get the book stopped. She was using this law firm: lavelysinger.com/ There are quite high powered from what I understand. They could not get the book stopped. The reason the book was pulled was because it included contracts between the Gosselin's and TLC and other companies which were considered confidential/proprietary and THOSE companies contacted amazon to have the book pulled.

Now Kate is using Bullyville and their attorney. They go on about how great they all are, but the one lawsuit they have been involved in, they won because the guy that they were suing did not show up, so he defaulted. I can't recall the guys name off the top of my head, but he had been partner's with the bullyville guy on some other websites.

I have more thoughts, but have to go for the moment. I'll add them later.

[Palimpsest]

I'll be interested to read more of your synopsis, Curious! As I said, I haven't been following closely at all.

As to what Kate does all day: I guess she wrote a cook book. I gather she got fired or was let go from both her blogging jobs. She no longer seems to be writing for the Stir and her firing from Coupon Cabin was quite open. She was determined to lack integrity by the CEO. Ouch!

So she has been putting a lot of her energy recently into filing what looks like a SLAPP suit. Good luck with that. I hope it is dismissed for the sake of the children. What a mess.

[Mela99]

OT, but I remember when she said she still gets manicures, pedicures and her hair done comped 2x a month.

Why would anybody do that for her? I mean, really? What could Khate Gossturd bring to a business that's worth throwing thousands at her a month?

[chaotic life]

Kate never wrote a single one of the books published under her name. I have a hard time believing she wrote the cookbook either. All of the other books had ghost writers. I would guess this cookbook has an actual cook who developed the recipes because I don't believe for a MINUTE that Kate can cook well enough to conjure a full cookbook of her own original recipes to publish.

Jon went crazy for awhile after the split. That is actually a very common and predictable response for an abuse victim. I concur with Curious. If the roles had been reversed, there would have been public outcry for the verbal, emotional and physical abuse that was clearly demonstrated on national TV.

If you read her lawsuit filing, she is STILL full of herself. Claims they have hurt her reputation. Also claims that anything they stole has intrinsic value because it is HERS and she is a celebrity, and yes that wording IS used in that filing.

I think she just wants attention again, and she'll do whatever it takes to get that attention. I think this will seriously backfire on her. She has opened herself up to the discovery process. While Jon has little money and has been interviewed as stating he has no desire to fight her, by naming Robert, she's got herself a HUGE mess she's trying to take on. He may be a tabloid journalist but he is still a journalist and I am inclined to honestly believe she DID throw the stuff out and later regretted it. Robert said at the time he had conclusive proof to substantiate his claims that he got the stuff from the trash, which is why she couldn't stop the book from being published and could only get TLC to have it pulled after it was published and their proprietary contracts were in it.

[Curious]

Kate actually did write all the books herself except for the first one, Multiple Blessings. That one (which is the only true "best seller") was written by Beth Carson. Originally, that book was just "by" Beth and Kate. Late Jon's name was added to the book, so the proceeds were split 3 ways instead of 2. Nice way to treat your friend that wrote your story for you, eh.

The second book, 8 little faces, is just a picture book with bible verses essentially. I'm not sure of the sales numbers on that one, but it probably sold pretty well, since people love pictures of the kids. Since there is not really much original content in it, I'm sure it wasn't a hard write.

The third book, I just want you to know.... sold 11,000 copies, I believe. I haven't read the book because I don't want to know the private details of things that should only be for her kids, but I've read a lot of "I've read it so you don't have to" type things about it and none of them make it sound like anything I'd want to read. She talks about how the kids handled the divorce and how they were as babies.

She actually wrote a cookbook several years ago called.....Love is in the Mix. Here is an article about it from 2009: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-new ... ok-2009275. The book was never published, allegedly due to the fact that the recipes were mostly plagiarized from the backs of boxes and cans etc. Anyone who has watched the show knows about "her" flag cake that first appeared in Good Housekeeping or one of those types of magazines in the 50s and "her" monkey munch, which is just the recipe from the back of the chex box (or whatever cereal is used).

Fast forward to 2013 and we have http://www.amazon.com/Kate-Gosselins-Lo ... 0757317642 (you can look at an example of the book here, too) She is still doing the strict portion control with her children, but you would think someone would have told her that for a recipe book being sold to the general public that she needed to adjust her portion sizes a bit past the starvation style she uses in her home.

Here is an example of a recipe she says serves 6-8:

It does look like she had someone else cook and take pictures of the food based on the difference between the stuff she shows on her twitter feed/blog and the book, which can only help her sales.

Once again, it looks like this is a scrapbook of the kids with some recipes thrown in. It would be nice if she could do something on her own without relying on the kids as the major draw.

[ljohnson2006]

I feel bad that the kids are constantly being dragged into this drama, but it's not like Kate tweets awful things about Jon or anyone else. People who constantly harass her, are why she does some of the things she does. Leave Kate and her 8 alone, and let them live normal lives.

[Palimpsest]

Thanks for the updates, Curious!

I feel bad that the kids are constantly being dragged into this drama, but it's not like Kate tweets awful things about Jon or anyone else. People who constantly harass her, are why she does some of the things she does. Leave Kate and her 8 alone, and let them live normal lives.

I'm so sorry, but this made me roar with laughter. That darn woman keeps popping up in the press. It's as though she won't go away even when I make every attempt to ignore her. I'd love for her to let her children lead normal lives, but she keeps putting them in the spotlight!

I've no idea what she tweets about the children's father, but why bother tweeting when she's badmouthed him on TV during the show and in multiple interviews in the past. I hate to think what she says to her children about him. It's parental alienation in an extreme form. If she truly believed he was an unfit parent then she should deal with it in Family Court privately. Let the judge decide.

And now she's filed a poorly considered law suit against him. If it is not a SLAPP suit it looks just like one. All it did was focus attention on the book she doesn't want people to read.

Just for the sake of it, I googled "Kate Gosselin twitter war" and pages and pages of stuff came up. She's had twitter wars with Saint Anderson Cooper, Em Tanner who apparently gave her lots of stuff in the past, a Philadelphia reporter, some guy called Carlos Gosselin because she wanted him to change his name -- and that was just the first page!

Good grief! The woman is her own worst enemy in her constant quest for attention and revenge against the husband she divorced.

[Curious]

I feel bad that the kids are constantly being dragged into this drama, but it's not like Kate tweets awful things about Jon or anyone else. People who constantly harass her, are why she does some of the things she does. Leave Kate and her 8 alone, and let them live normal lives.

I honestly don't understand how people can give Kate a pass like this. I'm truly baffled by it. There are mountains and mountains and mountains of evidence that show what a horrible person she is and since you are on FJ, it would seem like you would appreciate critical thinking. Yet, you are a Kate sheeple, clearly.

Earlier today I saw a post where you were on the Duggars about the oldest girls raising the younger kids, but apparently you give a complete pass to Kate having parentifed the twins?

How do you reconcile those 2 things? I'm not being snarky here. I'm honestly don't understand how you can give Kate a pass, yet think the Duggars are bad. There is way more evidence that Kate is a horrible parent out there than that the Duggars are. Much of the Duggar stuff is speculation, while much of the information about Kate is absolute fact because it's been shown on tv or posted on her blog, in her tweets, in the media or other verifiable sources.

Edit to add: I am not a Duggar fan either. I don't think either of them are great parents. I don't understand giving either of them a pass, but certainly not Kate over the Duggars, who by all appearances aren't waging public battles with all and sundry trying to stay in the limelight.

[laura oz]

I don't even have a 52 point housecleaning checklist for myself. I don't think we are filthy, but I'm probably not up to Kate's standards.

I have OCD about a clean house, and neither do I. And you could eat off my floors. She needs meds, maybe?

[treemom]

the sauce is soft and thick? vs hard sauce? WTF?

[formergothardite]

I feel bad that the kids are constantly being dragged into this drama, but it's not like Kate tweets awful things about Jon or anyone else. People who constantly harass her, are why she does some of the things she does. Leave Kate and her 8 alone, and let them live normal lives.

People with normal lives don't get on magazine covers like she just did. If she wants a normal life she needs to take herself out of the spotlight. Get off twitter, don't do interviews, go get a real job while the kids are in school and with their father.

Until then, she is fair game for snark.

[treemom]

People with normal lives don't get on magazine covers like she just did. If she wants a normal life she needs to take herself out of the spotlight. Get off twitter, don't do interviews, go get a real job while the kids are in school and with their father.

Until then, she is fair game for snark.

I will go a step further. People with real lives do occasionally end up on magazine covers. Usually for something exceptional.

She gets on covers of magazines to talk about how the kids to chores and it is hard to date after a divorce.

[Curious]

I will go a step further. People with real lives do occasionally end up on magazine covers. Usually for something exceptional.

She gets on covers of magazines to talk about how the kids to chores are her personal maids and it is hard to date after a divorce.

Fixed that for you ;)

[formergothardite]

I will go a step further. People with real lives do occasionally end up on magazine covers. Usually for something exceptional.

She gets on covers of magazines to talk about how the kids to chores and it is hard to date after a divorce.

That's true. She tries to get attention from the media and to keep herself in the public eye. She could have quietly moved on with their lives but she doesn't want a normal life.

[laura oz]

It's probably hard to get a date when men see you as a woman who emasculated her husband on TV, and is in general a nasty piece of work. I don't think divorce or the fact that she is a mother of 8 is the reason she's not dating. It's probably hard to find a man who isn't, by her standards, mediocre. George Clooney sure as hell isn't beating down her door.

[treemom]

It's probably hard to get a date when men see you as a woman who emasculated her husband on TV, and is in general a nasty piece of work. I don't think divorce or the fact that she is a mother of 8 is the reason she's not dating. It's probably hard to find a man who isn't, by her standards, mediocre. George Clooney sure as hell isn't beating down her door.

I was just using that an as example I have heard from normal people with normal lives. But they don't talk about this on the front page of people.

[laura oz]

I feel bad for Jon right now. There's a story about him on Radar that he's waiting tables/bussing them and living off the grid in a cabin he can't afford. Why is it ok for them to make fun of someone doing honest work? And the comments! All these people saying things about how far he's fallen, and how great Kate was to let him stop paying child support and claiming it was public record. I posted saying Kate didn't have the authority to do that, and the support was stopped because he has the kids so much, but the vibe over there makes me feel like I'm about to get attacked and start hearing the shrieks for "What SOURCES?!" :roll:

[Curious]

I feel bad for Jon right now. There's a story about him on Radar that he's waiting tables/bussing them and living off the grid in a cabin he can't afford. Why is it ok for them to make fun of someone doing honest work? And the comments! All these people saying things about how far he's fallen, and how great Kate was to let him stop paying child support and claiming it was public record. I posted saying Kate didn't have the authority to do that, and the support was stopped because he has the kids so much, but the vibe over there makes me feel like I'm about to get attacked and start hearing the shrieks for "What SOURCES?!" :roll:

I'd ask them for sources that show Kate "let" him stop other than her tweeting she did :P That has been going around for a while about him being a waiter etc. He does live in a cabin, I believe. I was under the impression the waiting tables thing was a second job though.

Even if it's not. He is doing an honest days work for an honest days pay. What is Kate's job again? Oh yeah, suing him and trying to keep her mug in the limelight. That's a noble profession ;)

I don't read the comments at ROL because I can feel my IQ dropping every time I do. Critical thinking is not happening there for the most part.

[Mama Mia]

I'd ask them for sources that show Kate "let" him stop other than her tweeting she did :P That has been going around for a while about him being a waiter etc. He does live in a cabin, I believe. I was under the impression the waiting tables thing was a second job though.

Even if it's not. He is doing an honest days work for an honest days pay. What is Kate's job again? Oh yeah, suing him and trying to keep her mug in the limelight. That's a noble profession ;)

I don't read the comments at ROL because I can feel my IQ dropping every time I do. Critical thinking is not happening there for the most part.

Slightly off topic, because I know virtually nothing about Jon or Kate, or their drama. But I know many couples who have let the other parent stop paying originally court ordered child support when their circumstances changed, myself included.

Most people I know may have had a court ordered amount decided as part of the custody and divorce agreements, but would often modify both custody and support informally if needed after the initial order, instead of going back to court.

Unless the court order is due to receiving public assistance - in which case the bulk of the child support goes to the state, not the children/custodial parent.

[Curious]

Slightly off topic, because I know virtually nothing about Jon or Kate, or their drama. But I know many couples who have let the other parent stop paying originally court ordered child support when their circumstances changed, myself included.

Most people I know may have had a court ordered amount decided as part of the custody and divorce agreements, but would often modify both custody and support informally if needed after the initial order, instead of going back to court.

Unless the court order is due to receiving public assistance - in which case the bulk of the child support goes to the state, not the children/custodial parent.

This might happen with people that have an amicable divorce (though I question whether it's legally binding or not and whether the child support paying parent could actually get in trouble if they just stop paying child support because the other parent says they don't have to pay it anymore when it's court ordered), but J & K have anything BUT an amicable divorce.

They have been in court over custody issues a number of times and not long ago a big deal was made about Jon supposedly being in arrears in cs (a claim he dismisses). Some of Kate's fans went on the PA child support site and looked up his child support history, which I suspect is NOT what the site is supposed to be used for, but I digress. According to him, the site was not updated accurately. Based on my own experience with paying child support and trying to get information on the VA site, I tend to believe this.

Plus, Kate is a lying liar who lies ;)

[laura oz]

Well, well, well. Looks like Jon is fighting back, and trying to get the suit dismissed with prejudice. The statute of limitations has run out on the hacking claims, and if I read it right, looks like he or his lawyer is insinuating that this was carefully timed to coincide with the release of her cookbook. That always struck me as quite a coin-ki-dink that this hit the press right before Kate's book was to hit the stores. Good for him for having the balls to fight back. I have to confess, I wish for the kid's sake, they would just fade away and live normal everyday lives. Kate is trying to hang onto her "fame" WAY too hard & it's becoming embarrassing.