By Jodi A. Shaw
Dear Kate Gosselin:
What a long, twisty road you have travelled! I first met you when the smiling, laughing faces of your sextuplets caught my eye as I channel-surfed one lazy afternoon. I confess, I fell in love with your children and spent many afternoons looking in on your family.
But I’m glad I stopped when things began to deteriorate. I wanted to see smiling children, not feuding parents and the mess of divorce. It was ugly, Kate, ugly. And all captured on TV and in magazines and tabloids.
Now, as the faces of your children fade from the airwaves and headlines, and they return to what I hope to be a normal, happy childhood, and your ex-husband, John, evaporates from memory, you remain.
You can be seen on solo appearances on talk shows, in interviews, are a steady author of sentimental and autobiographical books, and most recently, a participant on “Dancing with the Stars.” I’ve caught a few episodes of DWTS and your new-found hair-do. I’ve seen you rage, seen you pout, seen you struggle through the dance steps. And I’m hoping that tonight, now that you’ve been voted out, will be the last time I see you cry.
Go home, Kate. Stop pleading with viewers, trying to convince them you are a loving, devoted mother, and go home and be that woman. You don’t have to be a celebrity mom to be a good provider for your family. You don’t have to be constantly in the media to provide for your kids. Be a present mom, a constant mom in the lives of your munchkins, and maybe we’ll see you later. Later.
And if you don’t want to disappear from view entirely, let the tabloids capture photos of you, smiling, with your smiling kids, on a fun-filled family outing. You know, maybe with your hair pulled up in a pony-tail, relaxed and blissfully unaware that there are cameras pointed at you because you’re too busy interacting with the “Plus 8” in your life.
Yours truly,
Jodi
