I’ve been trying to sort out my feelings about the woman who recently had eight children in California. It has been about a week and a half since the story broke and it has been a mental rollercoaster ride. If you had to base information on news reports, I can see how someone could be confused, because the reporting has gone all over the map as things have been revealed.

I can say this; I think the unsubstantiated reports, at least at this time, of her having plastic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie speak more of desperation to figure this woman out rather than on solid facts. Because I have heard this mentioned many times, not only on vitriolic radio talk shows but also on semi-sober mainstream discussion shows, makes me wonder if reporters are able to separate their own feelings on such a personal story.

However, this is veering way off the mark on what I want to talk about.

Ultimately this is a sad situation all the way around, and there are lots of people enabling this woman in her actions. As time went on we found out she is a single woman who already has six children under the age of seven. Her family helps out as they can, but she’s going to school. While admirable, she’s going to have fourteen kids to take care of. That’s not something you can plan for and it’s not something you can figure your parents are going to be able to help you out with without more support.

One of the odd things that struck me early on was when she said she was going to breastfeed her new children. I thought at first this was a misstatement but I was able to find this in a variety of sources. What hit me was when the women of The View actually calculated how much time she would have to spend if she really was going to do this. It worked out to something like 20 hours a day, which is just humanly impossible to produce that much milk.

The sad but understandable side effect to all this was the loss of endorsements. Every huge multiple birth family gets either local or national attention as well as support from companies. The lifetime supply of diapers, the baby food, the clothes, in some way or another companies line up for the feel good story. That isn’t happening here.

The mother, in a very telling interview by NBC, plays the victim role very well. She claims because of her unconventional means (in her eyes because she isn’t married) many folks have shunned her. No, the reason why people have backed away from her is because of the in-vitro and the six kids she had before. What compelled a woman with six kids to want 1 more, let alone 8 more? Sure, once the eggs are implanted and all stuck there are moral grounds that could prevent the destruction of some of the eggs, but why was the procedure permitted in the first place?

Right now the estimated amount in hospital bills will be over a million dollars; that’s just to get them out of the hospital. If there are no medical issues with the children just the sheer expense of feeding fourteen kids is going to be a nightmare. Why people are so upset is in looking at this woman we see someone who has no regards, apparently, for her kids. People look at their own child and maybe can see what one or two more might mean, but having fourteen under ten years old and you’re the soul breadwinner, and let’s be real, despite her claim she doesn’t want to get government assistance she already said she may have to get food stamps, in one way or another tax payers are going to pay for the kids. It’s the whole attitude of the situation that doesn’t sit right with most people.

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There Was a Woman with 14 kids - Feb 18, 2009
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