Nadya "Octomom" Suleman: Motherhood as Media Sideshow

The Cult of Celebrity in America has drawn a new and so-far successful high priestess. She is Octuplets Mother Nadya Suleman and she is the woman who after already having six children went a little crazy down at Ye Old Fertility Clinic and had eight embryos put into body.  All eight were born, making her family consist of one single mother who is working on a college degree (a Masters Degree in Advanced Biology, I presume) and has little visible and legitimate means of ever supporting this baseball team of a family in the long term.  

 

 NBC News and The Oprah Winfrey Show have already done major stories about this family.   "The Today Show" in the morning devotes several minutes to this story. Only the downturn in the world economy is a bigger television story. Nadya has achieved  celebrity, for whatever short shelf-life that will bring her.  Even her mother and father are now  reluctant celebrities. . 

I have already seen the interview she did with Ann Curry on "Today". Before I could switch off  "Today" the folllowing  morning, my voyeuristic nature got the better of me. I was treated to seeing her argue with her mother on a videotape shown on "The Today Show".  Nadya's mother is having problems understanding why her daughter had so many kids after already having given birth to six.  (Grab a number and get in line, grandma.)

 It's sad.  Sad for her.  Sad for her parents, who seem like good people blindsided by the actions of their daughter.  I can only imagine what is going to happen to many of these kids when this lady suffers an inevitable breakdown when the cameras and the interviewers go away in a couple years.  (Foster Care most likely)  One television "psychiatrist" named "Dr'. Phil", whose not a real shrink but a great huckster, claims that she is "addicted  to being pregnant". Schrewd analysis there, Phil.  I would also add she is  addicted to getting her face on "People" or "Us" Magazine without going  through the trouble of becoming an actor or a model or a politician or billionaire.  

 The prime reason she had all these kids, it appears to me,  was to draw attention to herself, to use fecundity to create a cult of celebrity around herself.   It has already been reported that she had facial surgery to make herself look more like Angelina Jolie. And the media and yes, consumers of media like yours truly are  enabling her with interest in these interviews. 

Maybe Nadya can finagle some money out of these enterprises.  I honestly hope she can-without having to do anything too sordid. She is going to need some major day care services in the immediate time. And since it is estimated it now takes about $200,000 to get a child into adulthood in America, she'll need all the dealing skills and kindness of strangers  she can muster.  But at some point the media is likely to walk away and leave Ms. Suleman and her vulnerable children to their own devices.  

It's very unlikely that all this will end well for her, or these children.  Fourteen children, eight of them infants and many of the others, still young, seems to be too much for two well-established parents, much less one lady who may have an attention-addiction problem. It is reported that she is now considering an offer to appear in a porno film to make a million dollars, according to the New York Post.   Most likely the state of California  will have to step in and try and deal with the wreckage of this reckless woman actions, and those of her doctor who implanted so many potential kids into a mother of six. 

Don't get me wrong. I revere motherhood and respect ordinary women who choose to raise children without a husband.  But this is not an ordinary woman in a situation remotely manageable. If anyone sees a bright side to this developing train wreck of a story I'd love to hear it.