Jon + 4, Kate + 4

I'm not going to lie - I've watched Jon and Kate + 8 since the beginning. I think those kids are so stinkin cute. I am horribly in love with them... particularly Leah, Alexis and Aaden. They are my favorite.

Now everyone and their brother knows about this show - through the rocky relationship of Jon and Kate. Part of me is super surprised they are divorcing... the other part of me isn't. They've always bickered on the show (well more Kate at Jon than at each other), but it seemed to work for them. She's high strung, he's easy going... but they both loved the kids - and for awhile they seemed to be a united front. They had tender moments between the two of them. There were episodes you could tell they loved being with each other.

I had always defended their decision to do the show. Chad thought they were exploiting the kids for free stuff and TLC paychecks. I saw it as, "Hey, they're able to provide for their children in a way they would not be able to do without support." And my bottom line was that the kids ALWAYS seemed happy, smart, well-adjusted, sweet to each other and loved their parents (and vise versa). If they were little brats, I'd think differently.

It all changed for me during the last season's season finale. Towards the end of the episode they said they were having a hard time. Kate said that Jon did not want to do the show any more and it was causing strife in the household, but she insisted they do it because it was their commitment (wrong commitment to be worried about, but I'll save that for another blog). Right then and there I said, "THEN QUIT DOING THE SHOW." The MOMENT they could tell problems were arising they should have gotten out then and there to work on their relationship.

As we all know, that didn't happen. Unfortunately, Kate seems to be money hungry. It seems she thinks providing financially for her children (and quite possibly herself) has become priority over anything else. Now they are another broken family, left figuring out how to juggle eight young kids.

In the end, the Gosselins were focused on showering their family with freebies in hopes of showing their kids how much they love them. They should have remembered:

"The best way to show you love your children is by loving your spouse."

Will I continue to watch the show? When I get home this evening it will be deleted from my DVR list. I just can't in good faith continue to watch a show (providing advertising dollars) to fund a family who cares more about money than their commitment to love each other and their children.