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Let's Stop Obsessing Over Octomom

Published On 02-14-2009 , 11:09 PM

        PLEASE, people, let's band together and put the octuplets to rest. We can do this. With enough support, we can actually make this happen.

Oh, I don't mean we'll show up at the babies' home and make sure they're being fed, are wearing clean diapers, that the curtains are drawn in their nursery and their cradles are rocking.

Television news and interview programs have saturated the airwaves with Whittier mama Nadya Suleman, the children's media maniac mama, giving her just what she wants - constant coverage.

Do we need to know she has a Web site that seeks donations? Do we need to know her plans of returning to college to earn a master's degree?

The continuous reporting of each new detail that is uncovered about Suleman's life is neither news nor entertainment.

Boy, could the public benefit from some sanity, something we could sink our thoughts into and feel proud about long about now, in this very troubled society of ours.

There are single moms who do smart things. There are single moms worthy of media attention, but they aren't spotlighted because they don't make fools of themselves and don't make a mockery of motherhood.

There are single moms everywhere who are doing ordinary things that are producing extraordinary results.

These women struggle raising a houseful of children, albeit not 14 of them, setting good examples with strong values, high morals and a strong sense of responsibility.
 
These moms, and we all know some, haven't had the time, money,promised money or forethought to hire a publicist to market their very praiseworthy contributions to society.

There's the single grandmother I know who raises her five young grandchildren and refuses to accept any financial assistance even though her retirement check doesn't afford them any of life's luxuries.

"Not in this house," she says with the kind of pride and determination in her voice that we often hear weakened these days with our tanking economy.

She quietly explains the children aren't doing without and neither is she and if they couldn't make it on their own she's not foolish enough to let pride stand in the way of her babies having what they need.

"But need and greed have got to be seen for what they are," Granma said just before she asked if I was going to write any more about the mom and her octuplets.

I told her I'd been talking with a young man, who worked at the Apple Store in Pasadena, and when I sorta mentioned the subject matter to him he seemed to think we'd already had more than enough of the topic.

Of course I wasn't in the Apple Store to talk news, and while the techs in the place probably aren't generally thought to be the folks following the hot news topics, one gentleman didn't ask what I was talking about when I popped the question.

We've had enough. We can do it. Let's put the babies to rest. When the next interview or news segment featuring this story comes on - turn it off.

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