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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Leave Nadya Suleman ALONE.

Listen. I am sick to death of hearing the media drag Nadya Suleman (AKA Octo-Mom) through the mud. They are attacking her because she had octuplets and had six children at home. Oh and - gasp! - she isn't married. God forbid you have a large family without being married.

This morning on the Today Show they showed an interview with Dr. Phil and Ms. Suleman. Dr. Phil is ripping her a new ass because she's "addicted to pregnancy." Why? Because she's been pregnant seven times? Lots of people have seven pregnancies. Shit, Michele frickin' Duggar is on number thirty-seven or something. (Okay, it's eighteen. EIGHTEEN!) And no one is accusing her of being "addicted to pregnancy." Why? Because she and her husband are part of the stomach-turning Religious Right. The press accuses Nadya Suleman of looking for attention? Are you serious? The Duggars have their own television show. So do the Gosselins who, if I'm counting right, had seven pregnancies. I bet Kate Gosselin is addicted to pregnancy too, right?

We had sextuplets born in our area about five years ago. The parents could obviously afford to have in vitro fertilization done, right? I mean, that's not cheap, right? So when the babies were born extremely premature and in far worse condition than Ms. Suleman's babies, did we jump all over her? No. The press had a field day with it, and people donated diapers, formula, a mini-van. Every year on these babies' birthdays (they were born within a few days of each other) the local news goes nuts, charting their progress. A few of them have cerebral palsy, three are blind from their extreme prematurity. All are developmentally delayed. The family has since added another child. (She must be addicted to pregnancy.)

The point I am making is this. If Nadya Suleman fit society's idea of a nuclear family - that is, if she had blonde hair and blue eyes, and was married, and attended a Christian Reformed (or Baptist) church - the press would love her. They would be offering her television gigs. Her kids would have college scholarships and passes to the next Mars landing. They'd have a humongous house donated to them.

Please remember that Nadya Suleman didn't seek this attention. The hospital announced the babies' births, keeping the mother anonymous. Then it was Ms. Suleman's parents who leaked her name to the press. In all of her interviews she has been a quiet, unassuming woman. She has a website asking for donations, but did you know she doesn't even own a computer?

Leave Nadya Suleman alone. Her life has absolutely nothing to do with you. You think you're going to be footing the bill for her babies? Really? Did you get a tax refund last year? Then you aren't supporting anyone's babies. What is the difference between Nadya Suleman's babies getting the livesaving treatment they need and oh, say, yourself? How about your elderly grandparents getting Medicare? Should we shut them down too? What about the single mother struggling to support her children? Should we quit helping her too?

Get over yourselves people. You make me sick.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on some points here, but I have to agree with others that parents have a responsibility to be able to take care of their children and 14 kids is TOO MANY KIDS. So is 18, geez. I think they're all crazy. I can barely handle 2 kids. No one should be making death threats against this lady, and I doubt she's addicted to pregnancy, whatever that means, but she is selfish and a little off. Her parents are losing their house and she's off getting manicures and lying about tumors instead of getting a job to support the 6 kids she already had. That's not right. In my opinion, anyway.

The Nicholson Family said...

I'm sick of hearing it too. People have nothing better to do than drag her through the mud. They just need to leave her alone!

Anonymous said...

I agree that the media is spending far too much time on this. They aren't teaching anybody anything. However, the poor parents of this lady are stuck dealing with her 14 children. Am I opposed to someone having 6 children? no. Also, I'm not opposed to someone having 7, which by the miracle of medical advancement turned into 14 instead. The problem is the 6 kids previously weren't cared for by this lady to begin with, and were her parent's responsibility. If you can't care for 6 children, financially or mentally, why bring more into that situation?

Then again, this only effects me in that I have to keep hearing about it. I'd prefer if people left her alone so I could stop having to hear about it. What some lady that doesn't live in my house does is irrelevant to all of us, and it's not even fun to talk about any more.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx said...

See, it's not the fact that she doesn't have a husband that bothers me. It's not even the fact that she doesn't have a job - if she has the money to afford what her children need, then I think that's fine.

It's not about how many children she had, or even that she chose IVF -- though her doctor clearly broke several medical best practices - maybe laws - by implanting so many embryos.

The point is that even before she decided to have another child, she had seven -- seven children who are not receiving everything that they need. THAT is when we begin to attack her for not having a job, income, husband, plan.

It's easy to judge, I know that. I am not Nadya - I can't speak to her motivation, her mental state, or any of that. What I can judge on is based in fact.

Nadya's children - before the octuplets were born - were not going to receive everything that they deserved. Add eight additional children to the mix, and you can guarentee that these kids are going to be deprived of things - possibly of necessities.

Nadya knowingly made that choice, and her doctor assisted. Nadya ignored her current children's needs in her quest to have another.

It's just my opinion, but I consider that abuse. I think it's despicable. I think her doctor should be partly responsible as well.

I don't care about tax dollars, whether she goes on assistance -- what I care about is whether those kids get what they need. Because as it stands, I don't see how they will.

Anonymous said...

Only someone who has never been pregnant could come up with the accusation of someone being "addicted to pregnancy" - that Dr Phil, always talking out of his ass.

I agree... regardless of her motivation, if she were married and had a nice white lady name like Kate or Mary, they'd be THROWING television offers and diapers and cars etc at her.

But the media CAN'T stop talking about her, if they did - they might actually notice the shit that's going down overseas.

Masasa said...

I hear ya.

Anonymous said...

Well said!

I think her doctor probably needs some serious investigating (transferring 6 embryos into a healthy woman, probably not his greatest decision), but everyone else needs to back off about her.

And to the people who say she should have 'at least selectively reduced'. Well, crap. It's easy to make decisions and judgement calls when they aren't YOUR babies.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the other comments. I don't care that she's not married. (Hell, I wasn't married when I got pregnant with my kid.) It's the fact that she tried to have any more kids when she couldn't provide for the SIX she already had! Plus, all that money she spent on IVF could have been spent on the kids she already had (especially because some of them have disabilities).

Anonymous said...

I am so tired of all the nonsense!! Everyone needs to leave this poor woman alone!! All of the press and publicity is going to make their lives hell. The older kids are probably having a hard time because of all the terrible people out their saying horrible things about their mother and her choices. They are probably hearing things from kids at school and everywhere else and it is hurting them. And when these kids act up or act out about their frustration everyone will blame it on Nayda….yet who’s fault will it be really?? I say it is the fault of the American people putting their nose where it does not belong!! Give this woman a chance to do what she needs to do as a mother. Give her a chance at as normal life as possible for her and her children. So we may not all agree with her choices…but I am sure that everyone does not agree with all of my choices and I am sure I do not agree with all of yours. AMERICA….GET OVER IT AND LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!!!