Anyone watch the "Octomom" unseen footage special?

[Irish_Becca]

I caught a little of it. I mean, wow. This is no way to live. She has no control over the situation. I don’t even think she can tell those babies apart. This is why adoption is the loving option!!

 

[Liberanosamalo]

Made me very sad to watch. Someone at least teach her how to pick a newborn up so its head doesn’t flop around.

 

[JMJT28]

Awe, I feel bad for them. I didn’t see the show but I did hear about her on some news channel how she was admitting how it wasn’t such a great idea after all, and really tough to have 8 babies, amongst her older children. sigh I feel bad for them. I suppose she’s looking for anyway to provide for her family and maybe the show does just that financially. (well that is just one possible reason anyhow). I agree- adoption. Making your babies movie stars in order to put food on the plates isn’t the way to go, not in the children’s best interest…

 

[ahoyhoy]

She couldn’t figure out it was impossible for a single mother to take care of 14 kids on her own.

I don’t understand how anyone could be so stupid and so undeserving to be a parent.

 

[Jenny_Z]

I only saw the part where she said she ruined her life and the lives of her babies… HELLO, you can fix that right now if you wanted.

I also can’t believe that she didn’t recognize how it would be… how did she think it was going to be?? “I got caught up in the moment”… Really?

 

[petesgottheseat]

I didn’t catch the show, as I was watching “Top Chef” instead. But I feel that God has a plan for each and everyone of her babies. It’s just sad that they’re in this situation.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

She couldn’t figure out it was impossible for a single mother to take care of 14 kids on her own.

I don’t understand how anyone could be so stupid and so undeserving to be a parent.

Well, she didn’t plan to have 8 at once you know. The real trouble started long before her when society decided that it was a-OK for a single woman to get artificial insemination and other fertility treatments.

No Wait! It actually started when society decided it was OK for even married couples to conceive artificially. We have long ago devalued the idea of adoption so much that it’s only appealing if you can get an ‘interesting’ baby like Angelina or Madonna.

 

[Jenny_Z]

Well, she didn’t plan to have 8 at once you know.

She knew it was a possibility… She was implanted with 6 embryos, 2 became twins, which is something that happens very often. That’s why IVF doctors don’t implant that many embryos. She specifically requested it.

And I agree on IVF… what was that doctor thinking? (Probably publicity…)

What a mess.

 

[Alix1912]

I did not watch it, I refuse to give more attention to those who seek it and don’t deserve it. The more we pay attention to reality TV stars that engage in ridiculous behavior the more we encourage that type of behavior.

Where is CPS? Spanking a kids in the Grocery Store is not oK but having tons of kids when you obviously can’t safely care for them is just fine.

Whoever her doctor is should have lost his license. My mom went through Invitro to get my sister, and her doctor refused to make extra embryos to store as back up, and refused to implant more that two at a time, as he felt it was a hugely unneccesary risk.

 

[Irish_Becca]

Totally agree with the comments here. I also believe God has a plan for those babies, and I hope they are removed to homes with two loving parents.

I have been reading a lot about personality disorders today on an unrelated issue, and it seems maybe she might have some symptoms herself!

 

[DORTHYGAIL]

Not me. She made the mess she’s in and her children will suffer for it. I refuse to watch. I agree that the doctor should have his license reviewed.

 

[Liberanosamalo]

I’m hoping the show provides the impetus for social services to step in.

I watched carefully how it was taped and edited. Even the abusive photographer in the delivery room interfering with the nurse… how horrible!

They presented a woman who was more interested in future publicity and money even as she was giving birth to fragile babies than she was for their safety.

The editors could have clipped and edited it to portray her in a better light. All I saw was chaos and crying children and more crying sad disturbed vaguely neglected angry children and babies that were given little individual attention.

The photographer caught it all and didn’t blink. And didn’t edit out the unpleasantness.

It was a damning indictment.

Maybe someone at the studio did that for a reason.

I think this unbalanced woman should have the children adopted out where they all have the ability to interact and know her and each other. Maybe three or four families take them and agree to have contact for the next 18 years.

And let her have a little visitation.

But from what I saw, there will be a tragedy there eventually. It’s just waiting to happen.

The older children show signs of big issues. They need help. Her need to be a mother obviously surpassed her children’s need to have a mother.

Because she can’t be that for any of them if she insists on being that for all of them.

 

[TheresaLS]

Personal responsibility…I really wish her parents would have talked to her about it. She should understand that the world does not revolve around her. I will pray for her children but I would never watch anything having to do with this selfish individual.

 

[ahoyhoy]

I didn’t actually watch it, but from Wikipedia:

On August 19, 2009, Fox aired a two-hour special entitled, "Octo-Mom: The Incredible Unseen Footage[35] which included exclusive interviews with Suleman inside her home with her mother, as well as footage of the actual birth of the octuplets.

At one point, Suleman spoke candidly (and critially) about Kate Gosselin’s tummy tuck after having her sextuplets. Suleman commented about it while holding photos of Gosslin on the beach, and tore them after, discarding them in the waste basket.

In the documentary, more was revealed about the two 911 calls made by Suleman - one because she thought her son had supposedly gone missing, and the other because another had ingested salt and was violently vomiting from it.

The birth footage was captured by a woman (under the consent of the doctor and Suleman), on a personal camcorder. The video was recorded despite many hospital policies, and at the risk of contaminating the babies, the nurses, the surgery tools, and Suleman herself. The woman taping was asked repeatedly to leave, often with a nurse blocking her view of the procedure. Despite the constant confrontation, she managed to stay and record until the end.

There were many shocking moments during the documentary which could fairly contest the ability of Suleman’s parenting:

* When notified that her child had a black eye (by her mother), Suleman discounted it saying he's always running into things.
* While nannies were with Suleman's babies, she was out getting a tattoo.
* A broken window left by a vandalism was accessible (and even exposed to a cameramen) by one of Suleman's older children.
* Suleman admits there was a time when CPS was prompted when one of her children bit another
* Suleman only subscribes to two modes of punishment: time out or removing a valued item
* Suleman's son has kicked one of the octuplets, and when placed in time out, called Nadiya "*****"
* Suleman has repeatedly refused assistance from various caretaker agencies, neglecting sufficient attention for each child
* When confronted with criticism from anyone, she would either ignore it, shrug it off, or disagree with it (all times accompanied by erratic behavior).

Nadiya admitted that the fertilization with the remaining eggs was a mistake, but she plans to continue parenting however possible.

Relationship with Parents

The camera crews constantly witnessed Suleman’s reluctance to take the advice of her mother (Nadiya often shrugging it off with laughter). Suleman’s mother, 69-year-old Angela Victoria Suleman, a retired teacher, has helped to look after the first six children. She has indicated that she is overwhelmed looking after them, and has been critical of her daughter in her earlier public statements.[36] Before knowledge of the octuplets became public, Suleman had been living with her six older children and mother in a small three-bedroom house in Whittier, California. Property records show the Suleman house in mortgage default, scheduled to be sold at auction in May 2009.[37] Suleman’s parents filed for bankruptcy in 2008, citing nearly $1 million in liabilities.[38]

During the documentary, Suleman spoke of a time when she actually stuffed her mother into a trunk because she wouldn’t ride home with her when she was sprayed by a skunk. So an onlide editorial recounts:

The most chilling scene, for me, was when Nadya recounted the story that when was 17, her mother got sprayed by a skunk. Nadya told her the only way she'd ride home in the car with her was if she (her mother) went in the trunk of the car. Nadya then recounted how she shut the trunk door (although her mother tried to keep it open a crack) then drove crazy so she could make her mother's ride as uncomfortable as possible. "It was really funny," she said, "I kept hearing her body roll from side to side." From the deadness in her expression and in the tone of her voice, you got a terrifying whiff of someone seriously disconnected from human emotion. Until the documentary, I had dismissed claims that she was emotionally disturbed, thinking perhaps she was just a bit eccentric, but seeing her life exposed this way did nothing for her cause.[39]

Suleman’s father, 67-year-old Edward Doud Suleman,[40] identifies himself as a former Iraqi military man and says he is returning to his native Iraq as a translator and driver in order to financially support his daughter and her fourteen children.[41] Despite Nadiya’s mother, Mr. Suleman has vowed to protect his daughters wishes of keeping custody of all 14 children, even if it means fighting the government of the issue.

I just don’t understand why these people are alive.