Side show mentality

Not much happening here. As a matter of fact I am tempted to say that life here at my house is boring! Not a word I like to use since I've always said that boring is a word people use when they are too lazy to create a useful existence. Maybe that's me today. My solution to this is to bore you with a confession and some observations.

New Year's Eve I watched a lot of TV. I was too tired to do much else and Jim was at work so I started channel surfing. I landed on TLC and watched the entire 1st two years of Jon and Kate plus 8. I laughed and was incredulous as I watched. All those babies and two very harried parents made me unable to turn away. I can't imagine what it must be like. I'd never watched the show before because I consider shows like this much like the old circus side show concept. Instead of a circus owner, some TV producer looks for people who live in unusual circumstance and talks them into living in a fish bowl while we, being the voyeurs that we are, stare on with our mouths dropping open and our curiosity whetted for more.

Instead of Tom Thumb sitting in an exhibit answering questions about his life, we have Little People, Big World, where we actually get to see how two little people live, raising their children and trying to be "normal."

Instead of the Painted Lady, we have INK where we are titillated by people who draw on their bodies for pleasure and a living and how sorted their lives really are.

Instead of a myriad of human curiosities we have a show called Taboo where all sorts of strange human traditions and concepts are explored.

We all say "EWWW" and "AHHHH" and "Weird" and "Oh, no," but we still watch even when we don't intend to!

I don't know why, but I've always rebelled against that mentality until I flipped by TLC and saw Kate with her enormous belly just before her very normal sextuplets were born. I had to stop and stare! Who could stand that kind of torture? Then watching as the babies grew and someone is always crying, screaming or needy and the parents, sleep deprived and without any adult time, made me thankful that I was able to conceive and bare children without artificial help that leads to multiples. Whew! Still I couldn't stop looking! How tired can one mother get? How frustrated can one father become? How many children can cry and scream at the same time? What happens when they all get the flu and they are all throwing up? EWWWWW!

Any way to my shame I've become a Jon and Kate Plus 8 fan!

Then last night Jim and I were at odds at what to do with our time and I flipped to TLC, one of my favorite channels, and there was a program about a family with 17 children and we watched crying because the parents renewed their vows, and discussing what life would be like with that many children. Suddenly Jim confessed to me that he would have liked to have had a few more children. Maybe 3 or 4 more . . . at least! He quickly explained that he's glad we didn't because of the financial aspect but he loved the idea of the house being full to bursting with children. He is never more happy than when all the kids and grand kids are home.

See what these shows can bring out?