I keep thinking about Michael Jackson’s family and the pain they must all be in. The sudden loss of a Dad to young kids is especially terrifying. Michael Jackson’s kids are 12, 11, and 7. A girl and two boys raised by their Dad, a single parent.
You can only know what a Dad’s sudden death feels like if you’ve felt it. With permission from my 12-year-old nephew Stephen, I will share something he recently wrote in school for Fathers Day about his Dad's sudden death 4 years ago.
My brother Stephen died suddenly at 40. Stephen Jr. and his twin sister Sydney were 8, and their brother Dean was 7. My sister-in-law Susan has since remarried a lovely divorced father named Gary. I was outside in the driveway that tragic day when the cops pulled up, heartbroken for the three little faces inside pressed up against the window.
TLC announced today that production has been halted on Jon & Kate Plus 8 following the Gosselins' Monday revelation that they're splitting up. As a founding partner of Firstwivesworld.com, I want TLC to continue the ''reality" of what really happens when two people with kids decide to call it quits.
According to the LA Times, the network made the decision to halt production, not the family. Hmmm, the network signed on for a reality show about a couple raising 8 small kids, knowing full well that reality shows often cause divorce, and now they're surprised?
Only six episodes of the 40-episode season have aired. Through tears on Monday's show, Kate declared "the show must go on!"
If anyone could feel the Gosselin's pain on TV last night, it's we, the women of First Wives World. Jon and Kate Gosselin of the TLC reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8 are getting a divorce after ten years of marriage.
No doubt about it, divorce is tough stuff. Divorce is a broken dream that sometimes cracks before it blows up. And time, fame, and money often change the marital thought process. Women used to stay in bad marriages because financially they couldn't get out. Now, strong, unfulfilled women with cash make bolder choices — like to have affairs to get through the limbo. Husbands who can't win — privately, or not so privately — bust out too.
These are adult reactions to a slow-stewing marital stalemate without hurting the kids.
Yes Kate, it's sometimes easier to keep the lie going and sneak a little romance to get through, but sooner or later someone needs to call it. It seems to me you likely didn't think Jon would. But he did.
I hit the remote last night and there on VH1 was Hulk Hogan, with his daughter Brooke at a restaurant table, with 'divorce tears' streaming down his face. "It's been a crazy year”, he said. Yes Hulk, the year after a divorce usually is. “Broken Dream tears,” as I call them, flowed as he pointed out his family used to fill that table for 4. Empty chairs are so freakin’ loud, aren’t they?
Hulk tells Brooke he's proud of her for being a leader and taking the high road. Brilliant when kids reverse roles with parents! Brooke tells her Dad, “I know it’s Hard To Let Go.” Truthfully I’d have a little trouble letting go too Hulk, if some 19-year-old man were living in MY mansion.
"Brooke Knows Best" is on VHi if you haven't caught it -- the post-split follow-up to the Hogan family show I used to love. We now get to watch in real time what happens when a family splits. As if we don't know. Parents date other people, kids split their time between parents, and what used to be be yours, mine and ours is no longer.
I was just wondering to myself this week if the nation's swine flu fears were affecting romance. Is kissing someone you just met OK? What if this new set of lips just came off an airplane with someone who was in Mexico? What if "new lips" lives with a kid, who's friends with a kid, who was friends with another kid who went to Cancun? Will the line ..."So how long have you been divorced," be replaced by by "So, been to Mexico lately?"
Everyone I know is still kissing. People I don't know who I asked, said they hadn't thought about it. Should we be on kissing alert? I just read that The Archdiocese of New York has asked churchgoers not to shake hands when they offer each other the sign of peace during mass. If peaceful handshaking has been relegated to mass high fives, maybe we should issue a non denominational "no kissing strangers" warning. Not that that will be a problem soon if we are all wearing masks, but for now anyway, while we all privately doing out best to avoid the invisible demon.
Could jury duty be the new way to meet a mate? That, and if you want to find a wine opener in your big purse, bring it to a courthouse scanner. These are the two topics in my blog today.
I was called for jury duty this week. Not the most convenient time to be pulled away from earning money, but then when is jury duty ever convenient?
News that a couple actually met and married after serving jury duty together was obviously meant to inspire the singles who arrived for jury duty last week at The Westchester County Court House in White Plains, NY. Got my attention.
Judge Francis Nicolai, who addressed us all in the big jury arrival room, should seriously think of doing stand-up. He’s heard every excuse in the book about why people need to get out of jury duty and quipped that if he knew so many people were sick and insane, he’d have done better for himself in the medical field.
