The Rage Against the Octomom

Let’s say it straight out – Nadya Suleman is a whack job. She’s been writing letters for a year to Angelina Jolie, she had six kids and was receiving public assistance, and let someone implant her with eight embryos. What rational person makes these decisions? Answer: no one.

In the past, when we’ve had parents have five and six kids at one time, it’s a miracle – press loves it, communities comes together to help out, Oprah shows up, yada, yada, yada. Hugs and puppies. Usually these people are on fertility drugs and they’ve hit the lottery.

But a funny thing has happened. Since the birth of the eight kids in January, public opinion about Nadya Suleman has gone from a ‘what the f***’ to a downright anger as they learn the details of this affair.

So, why are people so pissed? Why aren’t we jumping onto the Nadya bandwagon, organizing potlucks and bake sales? Why isn’t Huggies showing up with truckloads of diapers?

Are we mad at Suleman? The kids? To a degree, yes, we’re mad at Suleman – certainly not at the kids. They didn’t ask for this.

Actually, I’d argue that we are pissed off at how fraking irresponsible everyone is in this mess. Irresponsible to the world, society – and to eight little babies.

Perhaps at other times, we wouldn’t show our ire so sharply and so quickly. But now, people are losing homes, losing jobs. It makes us angry that people are making stupid decisions based upon selfish reasons – and displaying these things for the world to see.

People are putting off having children or buying a home or going to school – because it’s the responsible thing to do. They’re working extra hours, taking jobs that don’t pay what they are worth – because it’s the responsible thing to do. We try and do what’s right – especially in these tough times.

And the Octomom and the three-ring circus that has assembled around her are flaunting irresponsible behavior at the expense of common sense. It’s people taking advantage of others, whether for affection or money – yet it’s all still irresponsible behavior.

Nadya Suleman, as we said, is a whack job. She’s probably the least at fault in this mess – even if she is the instigator. She said she loves kids, wanted a ton, etc. Great for you. Then have these children in a responsible way – be able to clothe, feed and care for them. Just because you want a bunch of kids doesn’t mean a little common sense can’t reign. Still, you have to think there’s something wrong with Suleman, and for that, we can even let a lot of it pass. A person desperate for love, desperate for attention – they can do some stupid things.

But then, instead of letting it go, we have others who have piled onto this mess of shit.

Suleman’s Doctors – who friggin’ agrees to implant eight embryos in a woman in Suleman’s situation? Who sits there and says, ‘Yep, this is a good idea.’ Dr. Michael Kamrava is the answer. What was he thinking? Other than just doing something for the sake of doing something, it seems like a pretty retarded thing to agree upon. When on average 1 in 4 embryos take for in vitro, he knew she’d likely get twins – yet knew full well that three or four was a strong possibility. He knew her financial situation. He knew she had six kids already. He knew all these things, yet never sat down and took a woman who is probably a bit whacked out, and got her to make the irresponsible decision.

Bottom feeders – You get people coming out of the wood work to make money off these stories. TV, newspapers, whatever – they see a buck and they feed the frenzy. They tell Suleman that they can make her a million bucks by exploiting her children. TV appearances, movie deals, websites, etc. But again, the anger from the populace is so strong that the Killeen Furtney Group, who were retained to make money on this mess, received so many death threats, they dropped Suleman as a client.

Are we mad? Damn straight we’re mad. Mad at the irresponsible behavior of too many people – the mother, the doctors, those out to make a buck. But people have always made money off of irresponsible behavior – it’s just now, during these hard times, it’s difficult to stomach someone doing it off of eight human beings that didn’t ask for any of it.

Show some responsibility people. It’s common sense. It will make the world a whole lot better place.