Tuesday, Dec. 08, 2009
The Family Way
When a woman gives birth to eight babies at once, there's a certain amount of head-shaking wonder. When it turns out she already has six kids under age 7, that wonder turns to consternation. And when it further develops that the new mother is single, unemployed and living with her own very put-upon mother, that consternation turns to, well, ridicule, cringing, joking, insulting, parody videos, morning-show discussing, nickname-calling and making the woman the poster child for all that ails America. But Nadya Suleman, more recognizably known as Octomom, eventually moved on to the lucrative stage of the tabloid life cycle; the first part of a documentary series cum reality show about her big brood aired in England in November.