No, not Brad and Angelina this time...

 So the stories of people having sextuplets  annoy me to begin with (if this makes me a bad person, bite me).  So the little miracle in southern California who had 8 babies, GREAT.  Then I find out SHE ALREADY HAS SIX KIDS .  I don't know what  makes me sadder, the fact that this woman decided that six kids weren't enough,that if she wanted to have 8 more babies that she couldn't freakin' adopt more kids instead, or the fact that corporate America is going to be stumbling all over themselves to reward this behavior with TV specials, cars, and free diapers.  Is it wrong of me to secretly wish that when Extreme Makeover Home Edition builds them a new bigger hosue that they lace it with some kind of serilization agent (or explosives).

This story, being a local SoCal news item, was breaking the other day as I was visiting my mom's hospital room.  There was a view from a helicopter looking down on the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Whittier, a town mostly bypassed by freeways, but I'm pretty sure it's where Richard Nixon was born.  Anyway, next thing you know the TV cameras are showing a beaming international staff of doctors and nurses gleefully describing the birth of this woman's litter. 

Now I've not kept up to date on the most current of fertility methods but have observed a plethora of celebrity twins of late, so I figured something was going on outside of that old fashioned sexual intercourse form of insemination. that used to be commonplace in procreation.  But are eight babies at one time REALLY something to celebrate?  Right out of the incubators, what kind of a vehicle will she need to transport eight babes in eight car seats plus the driver?  All the daily attention required to care for one infant multiplied by 8 seems an overwhelming task without even factoring in the $$co$t$.

But then we learn more.  Mom is a 33-year-old woman.  Unmarried, living with ma and pa.  In a home recently foreclosed upon.  No dad in sight.  Oh, and those other six kids under the age of eight!   Seems logical that such a gal would aspire to the pitter patter of more little feet!

No sooner are these eight babies removed ala Julius Caesar from the  womb, grandpa declares he'll be trucking off to his native Iraq to make some extra money to raise this brood!  Actually Mesopotamia sounds like a more desirable environment than being under the roof of a house with 14 children, 8 of whom are very likely going to have some extraordinary medical difficulties. 

Grandpa Sulieman was interviewed driving away in a car with the "$8898!" painted on the windshield.   Does he work at a used car lot?  He didn't want to get involved in any lengthy discussions, but he did mention that his daughter hadn't expected any more than one child to result from the implantation of 8 embryos.  Grandma Sulieman said when her daughter learned she was carrying seven fetuses (that's all she originally expected to hatch), a medical team advised her to "selectively remove the least viable" - meaning to abort a handful of them.  Grams said her daughter could not with a clear conscience kill any of her babies.  

Soooo, lots of issues...

1.  WHAT IN THE WILD WORLD OF SPORTS WAS THIS WOMAN DOING?  Is it at all like those women who can't stop taking in stray dogs or cats until the Animal Shelter raids their homestead?

2.  WHY WAS SHE DOING IT?  To make the Guinness Book of Records?  To win some goodies?  Or does she really just adore children soooooo much?

3.  WHY WERE HER PARENTS INVOLVED IN THIS OBSCENE DECISION MAKING PROCESS?  Didn't anyone try to reason with her?

4.  WHERE IN THE WILD WORLD OF ADVANCED MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS DID THEY LOCATE AN EXPERT TO GO ALONG WITH THIS HAIRBRAINED PLAN?  Was this a calculation from the get-go with the fertility doctor's complicity?

5.  TO WHAT END????

Oh, yes, I can imagine all manner of novelistic/cinematic motivations based on the current minimal information.  But I'll be patient and await the upcoming series of Larry King-Diane Sawyer-The View to learn more.  Personally, I'm hoping Michael Jackson will adapt the whole brood once they're out of diapers.  At least then we'd know the kids  would have a more normal life.

Susan

 PS  Updated story on mother's "obsession" with babies (and her parents' culpability).

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Oh I'm so glad to be here amongst my brethren. I posted my opinions on this at another place and totally got slammed for being "judgmental and cruel".

I think it's sad and irresponsible and disgusting of the mother, the grandmother, and the grandfather to have allowed any of this to happen. Period. The mother sounds like a nutjob with some serious issues, and her parents are complete enablers. Why anyone would want to sympathize with any of the lot of 'em is beyond me. They're all idiots. Plain and simple. The more they open their mouths, the less anyone should really feel sorry for them. We should be collectively outraged by this crap.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I watched the Anne Curry interview last night- it did nothing, absolutely nothing, to improve my opinion of her.  In fact, I probably hate her more, given that she's willing to exploit her children (oh yeah, including that autistic one she already has at home) for more attention.  No NBC didn't pay her, but they did advertise her donations website.

If you didn't catch it, she basically admits that her goal was to use every single embryo she made, and hope as many as possible make it.  She saw that as the "only choice she had" (oh no, not adoption, not even waiting until she was finished with school before undergoing the procedure). She blames it on  being an only child and not having any siblings, even though she wanted siblings.  She's also totally deluded- the sperm donor, whom she apparently went out of her way to make sure had no legal claim to the kids, she's now counting on him being in on their life, even though he's shown no interest in this  er, I mean "taking some time to get used to the idea".  She had to 'clarify' her financial situation, which is she has $50k in debt, and ZERO income right now- she's burned through her student loans, isn't on disability any more, and is taking food stamps and prescription drugs. She doesn't consider these last two as assistance because she doesn't want to have to take them(!?) and because eventually she will be making plenty of money so since it is temporary it doesn't count.  And yet she maintains she is super responsible.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

 What's for dinner tonight?

Chicken 'n' dumplings.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

 Plot words for Sam Gang Yi:

Vomit Scene 

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

I think in the same interview that is mentioned above, she slams her parents saying her childhood wasn't that great, etc. We only heard a portion of it but she seriously has some "issues."

and I feel for those kids! All 14....ugh.....i can't imagine raising (or attempting to raise) 14 kids. And with a mother who is seriously not right in the head, it's not good.

i think she was hoping that people would go all ga-ga for her and her 8 kids and she would get her own show, free stuff, etc (like has happened in the past with some couples) but the moment people found out more of the story, that all went down teh drain.

Not to mention that the last thing California needs to deal with is adding 8 more kids to the welfare list. Guess the state will be sending out some more IOUs to tax payers. "Thank to Octumom, we have to send tihs IOU to you."

How long before the state comes in and gets directly involved???

Jordan .

the media coverage has been shamefully racist and sexist. If you’re a white two-parent household, have 18 kids and get your own TV show and book deals and tons of money!! If you’re non-white and unmarried hoooooooooooooly shit watch out the media will rake you right the fuck over the coals for the exact same setup.

Note: having more than one child per parent is shameful and should be illegal. Welp, peace out.

I disagree with your first statement there.  Not sure how its racist 'cause isn't she white?  They're just calling her out for 1) being a wacko attention whore, 2) spending ALL of her money on IVF treatments so she has nothing left for  the actual kids, 3) prioritizing IVF treatments over getting a career that could support 14 kids (or even 7 kids).  And its not like she was poor and just too lazy or religious to have safe sex, she ACTUALLY SPENT ALL OF HER MONEY TO GET PREGNANT, AGAIN AND AGAIN.  It's like the dumb-asses who couldn't afford one house, but went out and bought another one, then lost them both to foreclosure, except that you can't blame any of it on predatory lendors, and its not houses, its a shit load of babies.

I haven't exactly followed all of the other recent big-broods-o-babies cases, but my impression is that they have been about the same demographic as lottery winners.  Sure, I guess they've been married, but I think Brad and Angolina are the exceptions in terms of being super-afluent, and its not like the press has been particulalrly kind to them either.

 i'm not in any way saying she isn't nutballs. anyone who has a ton of kids probably has a whole lot of psychological problems.

however, she wouldn't be recieving this kind of attention if she were white and married. from fiction like brady bunch and cheaper by the dozen to modern reality shows like "17 kids and counting!" (http://health.discovery.com/tv/duggars/duggars.html), america loves a ridiculously bigass family.

unless you don't fit the mold of course. i've seen commentators talk about how the "neglect" issue is unavoidable. as if it isn't for the duggars! just because she's single, the media has decided she's a whack job. i say that properly raising 16 kids alone is just slightly more impossible than raising 18 with a husband who works.

and i've even seen discussions on tv about whether or not she's "legal," which is clearly a part of america's terror that "gol'durn messicans" are crossing the border and living off welfare or whatever. again, questions that wouldn't even be raised if she was a blonde named sue smith.

i have no idea what her mental state is. she probably IS bonkers. but the media has gone totally ape on this woman for doing something that's usually rewarded in this country based on her race and marital status.

now that doctor who implanted all those eggs, he need to lose his lisence and be fined into next thursday.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/12/octomom-it-was-a-very-goodyear/ 

Jordan .

thought this one might be a tad fitting for this thread also:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2233878.ece

Jordan .

looks like another woman has been articially inseminated by the same doctor.

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/dpgo_another_octuplets_mom_in_la

She has quadruplets and is now in the county hospital. She was moved from one hospital to the county one because she has NO insurance.

So the procedure itself is THOUSANDS of dollars (as mentioned above). How can these women afford to be artificially inseminated but can't go buy insurance? Something doesn't sound right. 

Jordan .