What could be better than 14 babies?

[Danu 19]

Ah. The Duggars. Gotta love them and their huge family. I think I would drive myself nuts having that many kids and homeschooling them all. I've watched their grocery runs too and seen their pantry. My goodness, I can't even imagine. I want to know how they get by, because even though they live with some things being very modest, I imagine that many kids would eat me out of house and home.

[Emancipation 2]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/200...old-mother.html

[Krikit 1,165]

Be careful what you wish for. It may just come true.

[Sprailenes 47]

Ah. The Duggars. Gotta love them and their huge family. I think I would drive myself nuts having that many kids and homeschooling them all. I've watched their grocery runs too and seen their pantry. My goodness, I can't even imagine. I want to know how they get by, because even though they live with some things being very modest, I imagine that many kids would eat me out of house and home.

They own several commercial properties and they rent those out, plus I am sure the show gives them quite a bit of money. They are actually debt free, isn't that insane??

They cut a lot of corners too, like they shop second hand, make their own laundry soap and stuff like that. They're a weird family but I love watching their show. Their kids are insanely well behaved... maybe they're afraid of burning in hell if they step out of line.

[Caladan 19]

Implanting 8 embyros is generally considered a bad idea regardless of how many kids the woman has! Is that what they did? (Some could be identical twins.)

[Flames9_RN 358]

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20257365,00.html

Nadya Suleman says she tried for seven years to get pregnant before she successfully conceived with in-vitro fertilization at a facility – "and then I just kept going in."

In an interview for the Today show, the recent mother of octuplets – who has six other children at home – tells NBC's Ann Curry: "That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family."

The desire, she says, stemmed from a dysfunctional childhood, according to the interview, with airs Monday with a sneak peek on Friday. (Dateline also will air a portion on Tuesday.)

"I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I really lacked, I believe, growing up," she says.

Asked what she felt she lacked, she says, "Feeling of self and identity. I didn't feel as though, when I was a child, I had much control of my environment. I felt powerless. And that gave me a sense of predictability. Reflecting back on my childhood, I know it wasn't functional. It was pretty, pretty dysfunctional, and whose isn't?"

Suleman, 33, was interviewed shortly after she was discharged from Kaiser Permanente's hospital in Bellflower, Calif. Her babies – six boys and two girls – remain in the hospital all in good condition.

Disability Benefits

Meanwhile, PEOPLE uncovered new details about Suleman's medical and financial history, with documents showing she received nearly $168,000 in disability benefits.

Suleman got the payments because of injuries she suffered during a 1999 riot at a California mental hospital where she worked, leaving her with chronic back pain.

She was still receiving disability payments at about the time she was inseminated with octuplets, and doctors had precluded her from taking any job that involved "prolonged sitting, standing and walking," according to workers' comp documents.

While working as a psychiatric technician at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, Calif., she responded on Sept. 18, 1999, to an emergency alert called when 20 patients rioted.

Psychiatric Hospital Riot

"While she attempted to hold down a female patient, she was struck on her back by a desk that was thrown by another patient in the ward," says a document submitted last year to a state claims examiner. "She experienced the onset of immediate pain in her low back."

The State Compensation Insurance Fund stopped being liable to Suleman on Aug. 28, 2008, shortly after she got pregnant. As of that point, the documents say, she had been paid $168,000 in disability benefits since August 2001.

Doctors had concluded she had some permanent damage to the lumbar area of her spine that could become more painful "with heavy lifting, repetitive bending, prolonged sitting, standing or walking."

Doctors at the time noted that Suleman was already pregnant – and that her pregnancy might have been contributing at that time to any back pain. Doctors estimated that 10 percent of her pain at the time was due to her pregnancy, and 90 percent was due to the injuries from the riot and the car accident.

A Second Claim

The document goes on to say that in 2001, while she was leaving a doctor's office for treatment of the injury, Suleman's car was was rear-ended.

Suleman hurt her neck, back and shoulders, and filed a separate, additional claim for workers' compensation, arguing that the car accident would not have occurred had she not been going for medical treatment for the earlier injury. It was unclear if she received funds from that claim.

[thetreble 19]

Okay but...168K over 7 years is peanuts.

How is she going to look after 14 children if she has chronic back problems?

[Sprailenes 47]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29038814/?gt1=43001

She kind of looks like Alanis Morrisette

[Emancipation 2]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29038814/?gt1=43001

She kind of looks like Alanis Morrisette

I think she looks more like Chyna the wrestler??

[thetreble 19]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29038814/?gt1=43001

She kind of looks like Alanis Morrisette

Yeah with lip injections.

"I hold each baby for 45 minutes a day.."

Awww...45 minutes..I guess quality over quantity here reigns supreme. haha

[Sprailenes 47]

I don't question whether this woman loves her children. It's not about love, its about being able to financially, emotionally and mentally provide for all of them.

I find it really irresponsible for her to think that she will be able to provide for 14 kids once she graduates. How does she know she’ll even get a job in her chosen field? With the economy the way it is, the market is incredibly unstable. She’s not guaranteed a job. Also, I find it hard to believe that with her now well known mental state, that she will get a job counseling people, who’s going to listen to a woman who’s lost her marbles?? She’s the one who needs counseling.

Love is love, but you need a lot more than love to raise a child. Parenting is pretty technical at times and I just don’t think this woman gets it. You hold each baby for 45 minutes? What happens when you’re feeding one and two more get hungry? What happens if you’re holding one and one of her older ones fall down the stairs? She’s always going to be compromising one for the other. That’s unfair to the other 13 kids, but she isn’t thinking about her kids, she’s thinking about herself, and that’s where I question her as a parent.

Edited February 6, 2009 by Sprailenes

[thetreble 19]

Yes there were a lot of comments in her interview about HER and not the children. It was weird.

Also, how is she going to even finish her MA? Some times I don't know how I would do one and I don't even have children.

[Sprailenes 47]

I also love the whole: "Well I ONLY had 6 embryos implanted..."

Yea that makes it ALLLL better.

[Krikit 1,165]

Asked what she felt she lacked, she says, "Feeling of self and identity. I didn't feel as though, when I was a child, I had much control of my environment. I felt powerless. And that gave me a sense of predictability. Reflecting back on my childhood, I know it wasn't functional. It was pretty, pretty dysfunctional, and whose isn't?"

Well if she thinks having 14 children is going to give her any control she's just as nuts as we all think she is. And... seriously... Since when are children ever given control of their environment? They're children! Sounds to me like she still has no control.

[Reba 2]

The thing is, this TV interview she gave doesn't match up with psych interviews she has had previously with clinic doctors and her employer's doctors where she said she had a perfectly happy childhood and yadda yadda yadda hugs and puppies.

Nothing adds up to anything with this woman. Apparently she *was* married for a few years to some guy, but he's not the father of any of her 14 children, all the sperm was donated by "a friend". Every next article about this family contradicts that last one printed. None of it makes sense.