Some links for your Monday afternoon:
As far as pacifiers…
My oldest was ATTACHED to her “that-that.” Anytime we went everywhere, we had to search the house for one or she would throw a FIT! She used to find the ones I had put aside for trips and hide them. It would take an extra 5 to 10 minutes to get out the door. When she turned 2, we told her she was in charge. If she wanted one, she had to bring it. We weren’t taking care of it anymore. This worked for 2 weeks. She got fed up with searching for them, too, and never used another one! Thankfully, our youngest only ever used 1 once.
I was never really big on them when I was a baby. My sister had one until she was 5. It had to go everywhere with her. My parents tried everything, to no avail. We lived about 2 hours away from an amazing zoo and I had gone recently on a school field trip. All my sister could talk about was going to the zoo. My parents told her they would take us on a Saturday. Saturday morning rolled around, and they said we could only go if she threw out her pacifier. Plop it went into the trashcan, and that was all she wrote. If they had known how easy it was going to be, they said they would have tried that years before!
- Dana on
What more can be said about the octuplets that has not been said already. Yes it is her life! She is the one who (and her parents) must prepare, and mold these little ones for their future. Every family has their own “disfunctions” Whats disfunctional by someones standards is not necessarily disfuntionally for someone else. That being said, I would love to get a glimps into her world and her thinking. I find it unfair to her parents who were done raising children must now help her out full time. ( yes i’m sure they want to but what about later) And Yes parents helping out once in a while or even living with with their children to help them out is great! (I wish my mom was still alive I loved her helping me and giving me advice) But to have all 6 and then 8 more, must be overwhelming. And I can’t help but feel she is going to miss out on her time, Time that we spend with our spouse or significant other, someone to bitch too about the day we had or just to cuddle with. But once again who are we to judge, Its her life. I wish them only the best!
- Mary on
I am not even sure where to begin about the woman with the 8 babies which brings her total to 14. When I first heard the story I thought it was miraculous. I do agree that she has a right to make her own choices, but……. I live in the same state as she does and now I find out that she is on welfare which means my tax dollars are going to help raise her 14 kids while she attends college. I think that is disgusting. I have two children and I am sitting back just trying to figure out how to put them through college and one if so the age now. Then if read this and felt sick to my stomach, not married, no job, on welfare and she is the miraculous one. I think not.
- Renee on
Renee, bravo! Let me tell you now, if this woman lived in the UK, far worse things would be said about her than have been said. I don’t honestly know how this was even allowed to happen. Bless those 14 little souls, but the mother should essentially be ashamed of herself.
- Alex on
I feel so sad and angry at this woman, (with 14 children) yes it is her choice to have as many kids as she wants but come on, lets be realistic, a single mother leaving in a 2 bedroom home with her parents with 6 children, wanting more? My goodness! and also, arent invitro really expensive? how can she afford this?
I live in California, I even live in the same city she does and it makes me so angry…and at the same time, I want those babies to be well and happy and safe and loved!
I have so many mix emotions about this…God bless the children!
- XOXO on
Totally agree with you, Renee!!!! As a former Californian, this is part of the reason I left the state…
- Mom to be on
this is a GREAT article….please take a hard look at it, he has MANY really good points.
“Two children should be limit, says Green Guru” from TimesOnline
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5627634.ece
- Annette on
I just have to say, that little Kamani with his 12 fingers and 12 toes is absolutely gorgeous! The pictures of his delicate little hands are just beautiful 
- kellana on
Mary, you must not live in CA. We are all getting IOUs from the state instead of tax refunds this year and this woman is blatantly abusing the welfare system and state resources. Would you happily sign over your familys tax return to this woman?
- morgan on
Morgan I don’t live in California. I wonder how many other women in your state (or others like it) are allowed to do just as she has done. It is wrong. However from a law point of view you can’t discriminate against or do profiling without organizations such as ACLU having a major say in it. But if she is doing it for money (living in a 2 bedroom with a shit load of people/kids does not sound like she is making a lot) it is wrong. However it is just as wrong as those who are foster parents keeping money for themselves and not spending it on their foster kids. We as tax payers pay for that to. I have seen that first hand. So now what. She has already had the children. How can a state stop the abuse without discriminating? (when I say discrimination its not race, but single, uneductated, educated or a woman on welfare They still have rights too). I don’t have an answer. Doctors? LawMakers? Or next election have on a ballet yes or no and let the people speak!
- Mary on
There is no right to welfare. It’s not like freedom of speech or the freedom to bear arms. And while it is highly unamerican to discriminate against someone based on their race or gender, personal behavior is another story.
- Nicole on
regarding the story of the child born with 12 fingers, 12 toes:
ME TOO!! i’ve always felt alone in the world, since it is genetic on my father’s side & i did not grow up knowing him or his family. they did a good job of removing them when i was 8 months old, in fact, most folks can’t tell unless i tell them. my toes were fully functioning, perfect. my extra fingers, not so much. i’m happy with my mother’s decision to have them removed, i don’t miss them. it’s nice to hear stories about other polydactyl people out there. it helps me feel like less of a freak.
- I-dra on
I am shocked about those chickenpox parties. Those parents are putting their children at risk. Fine if you don’t want to vaccinate at such a young age, but you can certainly vaccinate at like age 5 when the kid’s immune system is stronger and can handle vaccines better than at the 0-3 age. I’ve never been immunized against chicken pox and I’ve never gotten it. Then again my parents did not go around looking for chickenpox parties.
- DLR in Canada on
My parents did everything they could to make sure I had the chickenpox as a child and not as an adult. We found out later that I had been exposed to the virus as an infant without any symptoms but it became a major source of concern as I entered my late teens, to the point of a near panic at my doctor’s office when they discovered I hadn’t had it by then (the panic came from the potential that I would catch it as an adult). Having the chickenpox as an adult is extremely dangerous and can cause devastating life-long effects. Fortunately in childhood it is relatively benign. Making sure your children develop the antibodies to the virus before adulthood is not putting them in “danger” it is the most responsible thing a parent could do. They are thinking about their long-term health and not the immediate irritating symptoms of itchy pox. The risk of complications is comparable to any exposure to a mild illness (not to mention that in rare cases children can also develop a disease from the vaccines themselves and parents have the right to forgo non-essential vaccines for such illnesses) and the benefits of probable immunity are well worth a few weeks of itching and perhaps a battle scar or two to share on the playground.
- smiley on
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