Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gosselin Kids

The breaking news in the entertainment world seems to be Prince William's upcoming wedding and two of the Gosselin kids being expelled from school. While I have absolutely no interest in the royal wedding, I do see some common themes in the Gosselin kids and the average family. Here are some of the important things I think we need to take out of this latest episode.

1) These are kids. They will sometimes act out and may now be acting out as a result of the recent stress and turmoil in their young lives.

2) We don't really know what kind of parenting is going on so we can't judge. We really shouldn't judge even if we did have all the facts but without actually witnessing what goes on when the press isn't around is just unfair.

3) The kids attended a private school. Now, some people will see this as not an important fact. I will say that it is. Private schools can and often are much more selective about who accept and who they dismiss. That needs to be considered when looking at the school's reaction to the kids' behaviors. They may be a very tolerant school but they may also have very strict behavior policies and may kick out many kids every year.

4) Kids are still learning, growing and developing. They may not have the skills necessary to navigate difficult social encounters or to handle strong emotions like adults would like.

5) Schools have confidentiality rules and laws for a reason. Kids privacy needs to be protected. The entire world doesn't need to know the details of what happened. The school, parents and service providers need to help the kids learn but the rest of us don't need to know the details.

I won't get into my personal feelings about how the children are being raised or the choices that their parents make. I will say that I am pleased Kate is choosing not to speak to the media about her children's problems at school and only wish the media would stay out of it. Many of our children will get in trouble at some point in time as they grow. The entire world doesn't need to know about it.

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