Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
-
posts about #serialmom more → 
"Like Something From A Greek Tragedy": Nadya Suleman At Home
New York, 12:28 AM
Wed Nov 25
62 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email | Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Email
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
| posts about #serialmom more → |
"Like Something From A Greek Tragedy": Nadya Suleman At Home |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/15/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
To be honest, I have to say after seeing it, I actually gained a new respect for her. She didn't come across as deluded, or insane or some bat-shit crazy mother. Yes, she clearly has issues regarding her want to have even 6 kids as a single mother, but she didn't ask for 8 more nor did she expect it. And she seems to deal with it incredibly well. To see her in this zoo of a house, kids screaming everywhere and yet she stays level-headed and sane, it's quite something.
I still think the children will be awfully fucked up and will all need therapy, I think none of them gets enough attention etc. But I do also think she is truly doing the best she can. Really, her mother (who is a complete tyrant), the weird sperm-donor 'friend' and the doctor who implanted her with 6 embryos rather than the legal 2 should all be examined as well. She didn't get to this situation on her own, which is something people tend to forget. She didn't want 8 kids and even if she did, the chances of 6 embryos all surviving and 2 of them becoming twins is incredibly unlikely.
Whatever the case, I'm dying to see how these children turn out. Particularly the eldest, Elijah, who is literally oiling up the wheels to go off the rails any day now... #octomom
11/13/09
However I'm wondering why this article keeps mentioning squalor? I thought her house was surprisingly clean and neat considering the 14 kids and 5 adults in it everyday. The kids are clean, well dressed and had a tonne of fancy toys.
I know parenting involves more than just that, but she seemed to be doing well on the practicalities to me. #octomom
11/13/09
Of course, had she had a responsibly doctor, it wouldn't be an issue because he wouldn't have transferred 6 and would have explained the risks to her. But she doesn't get a pass on that point. What she did was very reckless and she's lucky that all of the babies lived and none seems to have serious issues. #octomom
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
I mostly blame the doctor - he's since been expelled from the ASRM for his practices. I'm not trying to condemn her, I don't think she's evil, but I do think she was willfully ignorant, at best. And on a personal level as someone who's done IVF, people like her who abuse it make me insane, because they lead to things like half-assed legislation (see, Georgia) seeking to limit other people's ART choices. #octomom
11/13/09
11/13/09
It's not like stuffing 6 in there increases the chance of any single embryo turning into a baby. An embryo will either continue to develop, or not. Multiple transfers would have been just as effective. She still could have used up all of her embroys, just in 3 transfers rather than one. And frozen transfers, while not cheap, are not prohibitively expensive. #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
News flash: it's fine for grandparents, neighbours, friends, older siblings, aunts, cousins, nannies, teachers, etc. to have a hand in raising kids. That is the way it used to be done, before some people decided a woman had to be shackled to her progeny until death. Actually, it's even fine for kids to be on their own every now and then.
As for "passing on the responsibility," you are confusing daily chores with the much more serious business of parenting, namely providing the kind of moral, social, and emotional structure and support that children need to become mature and well-adjusted adults. Big sis or bro can watch over the baby of an evening, but the responsibility for both children remains the parents'. #octomom
11/16/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/13/09
11/12/09
You know, I make probably twice as much as the average American and I don't believe that I am financially capable of bringing ONE child into this world right now. That's not to say that people who aren't super wealthy and education can't have kids...I'm just saying that you shouldn't be COMPLAINING about an inability to take care of your kids because of your inexplicably low salary while continuing to PROACTIVELY implant embryos in you. She was making $15K a year with 6 kids?
This lady is a pathological liar. Remember when she said that she never was on public assistance? Lie. Remember when she said that she was totally capable of taking care of her kids because she's getting her Ph.D. or whatever in psychology and could care for them with that degree? Lie. Remember when she said that she never had plastic surgery? Lie.
This is the same lady that goes out and gets a tattoo (which costs hundreds of dollars) while her kids are at home with a bunch of nannies that are being paid by who? SHE IS A FUCKING NUTCASE. No schaudenfraude here...just total anger. #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/13/09
11/12/09
Because I love amateur photoshop, I decided to make this. #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
(Unless, of course, it's a Jezebel piece about Octomom, in which case I drown in the conundrum.)
11/12/09
And I'd say that making a decision to give birth to children you do not have the resources to support (either economic or emotional) has a negative impact on society as those damaged children will be interacting with the rest of us for the rest of their lives.
If we as a society say that everyone gets to do whatever they want and no one should say "You're an idiot," then we all get to be spoiled, obnoxious brats to everyone we interact with. I don't like that world. #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
Peeking in her curtains with a camera saying, "has dog smited her yet? When's she going to get her comeuppance? I sure hope things go badly for her" isn't judgment, it's mean-spirited and spiteful. It's this idea that I judged her actions as wrong, now why isn't Fate/ Posterity/ Pajama Man bearing out my judgment by making her life a living hell?! that keeps people coming back for more, and keeps media outlets putting that slant on the story. It's not just judgment, it's self-righteous and mean-spirited.
If there was a piece saying that she was doing very well, that an anonymous benefactor gave her $50M and she's going to be fine, the kids get all the help they need, she's in therapy and in love, people would go APESHIT BANANAS with rage. Judgment is just the first aspect. Wanting her to suffer because she behaved badly is retribution. And that's what the public wants against this woman. #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
And should we just accept that stupidity is rewarded and not try to change it? #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
She needs a lot of money to take care of those kids. The easiest way for someone who isn't a star athlete or brilliant and very educated in our society is to take it to the small screen. If she didn't try to do that, she'd get ripped a new one for not working to put food on the table.
She hasn't made good decisions, but having the entire country smugly anticipating her eventual total collapse isn't as simple a thing as judgment. And when you act like it is, you're setting up a false dichotomy between
1. people who think she deserves some kind of epic comeuppance (and therefore judge her decision to have 14 kids she can't afford) and
2. people who are hoping she gets out of this okay (and therefore celebrate the Having Of Multiple Children You Can't Afford). #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
I still think the entire situation is wrong from the beginnging, but now the children aren't embryos, but children who have to be raised and fed. I see her point about television being the only way she can support that, but...and I mean this nicely....why did she have ONE child if she only makes $15K a year and has no other means of support?
My former in laws have six biological and one adopted. Their youngest is only five. The oldest has a child who is also five. They are, without a doubt, the poorest people I have ever met.
It is ironic to me that the scientific developments that were to spare women from a lifetime of being a brood mare have led us, in a twisted way, back to being brood mares. At eight it's a litter, not a family. #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
I feel like there's a definite Greek Mythology connection with Nadya Suleman. Perhaps Persephone? #octomom
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
That's the version I know, anyway. There are a bunch of others. #octomom