VivirLatino

This Nadya Suleman story just won’t go away.

The latest news is that Dr. Phil felt the need to bully Suleman until she finally admitted on national television that it was a mistake to have her very much alive children (who will one day get to witness said admission, hooray!).

The thing that cracks me up here (in an ironic sarcastic way), is that as somebody who was mildly interested when those sextuplets were born years ago (the ones that Diane Sawyer kept interviewing), I know that that family *also* was counting on the resources friends, family, and neighbors/community members were willing to provide. I remember that they started off living in a small house and only finally moved to a bigger house because corporate sponsors provided them with one. And I have yet to see *any* of the houses of these families (including the oh so on top of it Duggar family) that don’t look like train wrecks.

So why are all these things (messy houses, lack of resources, getting help from friends and family) so cute and wonderful when it’s other families and so horrible and terrifying when it’s Nadya Suleman?

And why does Dr. Phil think it’s his right to act as representative of the U.S. when interrogating Suleman’s choices?

I know a lot of people will point to the fact that Suleman has 14 children and seems economically unready to handle them–but I have to say, as a mother of two, it makes nary a difference if you are living on welfare/student loans with 2 children or with 50. When you don’t have money–you simply don’t have money. You can’t get “more” broke than broke, right? So is it *really* an issue how many children she has?

Or is it more just a fact that like *all* single mothers, Suleman seems to be flouncing in the face of the world that heterosexual relationships are simply unnecessary to have and raise children? Or like all mothers of color, Suleman keeps bringing all these little brown babies into the world like they have a right to be here? Or like all women who may have mental health issues, Suleman is continuing to live life as if she has a right to live life, even though people with mental health issues are supposed to be locked up with the key thrown away? Or does it just piss the poor Dr. Phils amongst us off to no end that women can (ARGH NO) get *rich* off of having kids? Rather than working our big white butts to the bone like Dr. Phil so clearly has?

If we get over the fact that she has 14 children (so the hell what), we can start to uncover some truly disturbing trends in how U.S. culture treats women and mothers specifically. Will we be brave enough to do that?