Jon and Kate and other nastiness..

I was going to avoid the subject of Jon and Kate plus 8 because the media has taken this story and beat it to death. But their story reminds me of something else that has been bothering me lately and I'm going to try to tie it all in together.

I have been a fan of this show from the beginning. Call me crazy but watching Kate each week made me feel normal as a mom. We all have those moments when we lose it and I for one lose it often (or at least feel like I'm losing it) and I only have two children. I cannot even begin to imagine what I would be like if I was filmed constantly and I had 8 children...well, 9 if my husband was anything like Jon. The thing that bothers me about their story of late is that the media, people who are not fans, and most importantly fellow mom's are jumping on this band wagon and blowing this woman apart. What did she ever do to you? Maybe you don't like her personality...maybe she really is terrible in real life but how do you know this? And why does this give you the right to tear her apart, pick apart her life and splash it all across the magazines, Internet and TV? Why do people seem to be happy about cutting others down? She is a person with real live feelings, not some character out of a book or from your favorite sitcom. You could argue that they opened themselves up to this by being on television, but where do you draw the line? Why is it so important for people to cut others down? Is it a way of making yourself feel better? What benefit do people get from being so nasty to others?

At the beginning of the school year my principal told us a story about a bucket of crabs. He said if you watch the bucket you can see some crabs trying to climb out and meanwhile other crabs in the bucket are trying to pull them back down. Instead of helping their friends to escape they pull them back down into the bucket. He told us this story in the hopes that we would really work as a team this year and celebrate each others accomplishments instead of being nasty when other succeed.

I think overall we have done well with this as a school but lately I see the nastiness coming out. People are vying for the same jobs and instead of encouraging each other some are actually sabotaging each other. Some teachers are refusing to talk to others because they are applying for the same positions. One teacher today actually said she wasn't going to speak to another teacher if she got a job before her because everyone knew she was just going to brown nose her way to the top. As the counselor I am everyone's confidant...they have no problem talking about each other to me. Today I had enough and declared that we were all acting like that bucket of crabs. It's time for us to encourage each other and help each other to succeed rather than cutting each other down.

I see this as a mom too....other mom's cutting each other down to make themselves feel better. Why? I guess I just can't figure out why nastiness and meanness is necessary? Why does making others feel bad make some people feel so good? It may sound naive but why can't we all just get along?