Aunt Jodi

First I would like to apologize for any name calling I have done on my blog. Saint a fellow blogger brought this to my attention and I humbly apologize for it. I did it in the heat of the moment and that was not what I intended this site to be. Please excuse my behavior.

I keep seeing people talk about Aunt Jodi and why she is no longer on the show. And making her into the victim. While I do not think she is a victim, but rather in a bad fight with family I do think there are good plausible reasons that she is no longer on the show. I feel bad for her because she looked very pitiful on her video. (Let me clarify that statement by stating that by pitiful I mean really, really sad. I feel for her. I don't see my nephew for certain reasons ((that will remain private)) and I can completely sympathize with Jodi.)

I actually wondered why I no longer saw her on the show myself a couple of times. But looking back at previous episodes I am began to see something that I didn't really recognize before. The first time I saw it was when Kate took two of the tups to the eye doctor. When Jodi dropped off the kids it looked like Kate seemed to be annoyed with her interacting with the kids. Now it could be that Kate was having a long day, but you could tell that Kate was ready for Jodi to leave. Then when the kids were having their one on ones you could tell by hints that Kate and Jodi both seemed tired after the fifth kid. But I salute them both for keeping it up. Then when Jon went to get his hair transplant when Jodi comes in the first thing she says is, "You can't tell its morning out with all these lights on." I don't think Jon paid attention to her or heard what she said, but if you look closely you could tell there is tension. There was less smiling and less chatting than before. I think that was that was probably was the beginning of the end of their friendship. I hate that.

As I have stated before that I did not see the point of Jodi's sister's blog and I still don't. I believe that family business should stay in the family. No sense in airing dirty laundry because all it does is stink. However, I do believe that Julie does have Jodi's best interest at heart, and maybe Jodi asked her to stop.Which is why she never updated it since the beginning of the month. Except for the National Enquirer article. We will never know, and you know what happens when we assume. We end up making an a** of ourselves. But I have to feel for Aunt Jodi. I have nothing against her, in fact I actually applaud the way she parented the tups and her own kids when they were in her care. She got down on their level and really talked to them one on one. I understand and even envy that. I never got that as a child, therefore I rarely do that with my own kids. Now that doesn't mean I am a bad parent or that I don't talk one on one with my kids. In fact I love cooking and baking with them. I relish taking them one on one to their extracurricular activities by themselves and nursing my newborn son. I guess that is why I can't just jump on the "Kate is a terrible parent" bandwagon. Because in some instances I would have reacted the same way. Let me give you some examples.

1. Mady and her temperament. From the episode "The twins turn 7". Mady had a bad day at school, came in, kicked a balloon and stomped off. Kate handled it much better than me. My oldest child is much like Mady and if she came in and did that after I spent all that time preparing for a party I would be pretty ticked. (My oldest gets her temper from me..do you see were I am going.) I would have handled it totally different. But Kate brushed it off and stated that Mady was just Mady.Which by the way, I commend Kate for not flying off the handle. I think Jodi would have handled it differently and probably in a more personal one on one way because I think that's her personality.

2. Another example is when they where at the beach house and the girls kept eating the strawberries even after Kate asked them to stop at least 4 times. She yelled at them. They stopped. I can't say what she did was bad because I would be calling myself a hypocrite. I would have done the same thing. and as a matter a fact I have. Now I don't think that makes me a bad parent nor Kate. But someone like Jodi probably would have done it completely differently. Probably not with yelling.

Let me just state that I don't always agree with Kate and her parenting style. I believe that if you are outside with your kids, play with them. They grow up so quickly. Savor the moments. But I don't want anyone to think that I am letting Kate get away with some of her behaviors. She's quirky. I think Jodi was well as Beth were one of the few people that understood Kate and all her quirks. Off topic, I have a friend that is about if not more quirky than Kate. She has to have things clean. She can't stand clutter. And when I mean she can't stand it...she can go through a room like a Tasmanian devil and toss stuff like no one I have ever seen. She cusses like a sailor and has a very smart mouth. (Which can get her in trouble). You either love her or hate her. I have learned this is who she is and she is not changing for no one. I think Kate is the same way. I believe that Jodi did come across more loving than Kate and it probably did bother Kate. I hate to hear the falling out had to do with money. Money is not worth it. My husband and I found that out first hand after we moved over 300 miles away from our familiar surroundings.

I hope they are able to patch things up soon, and the kids will grow up knowing their cousins. I didn't have that chance because my parents chose to move away from family and not go home often. But that was due to certain reasons. My main point is that I know what it's like not to know your cousins and it sucks. Hands down it is not good. I pray they come to a compromise.