Have you seen the television show Jon and Kate Plus 8 on the Discovery Health channel yet? It may seem a little strange to be writing about them here because the show has nothing at all to do with adoption, but I’ve been thinking about their family lately. The show is a reality show that follows the day to day lie of the Gosselin family. The family consists of the mom Kate, dad Jon, a set of six year old twins and a set of two year old sextuplets. I am fascinated by this show, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that the parents are raising two sets of multiples. It’s because they’re a biracial family and I can’t help but be drawn in by the little ones’ sweet little faces.


Jon is Asian and Kate is Caucasian. Obviously, because the children are their biological kids, they are mixed race. The reason that I started thinking about them recently was because of my conversation with the lady at the grocery store. If you didn’t catch my post, I was chatting with a stranger when she made the assumption that Ella was my biological child and my husband must be Asian. She’s the grandma of biracial Taiwanese and Caucasian grandkids, so that explains her assumption.


I don’t know why this led me to think of the Gosselin family, but it did. I wonder how often people assume that Kate is the adoptive mom of her kids and how she reacts to that. Is she as surprised as I was when someone assumed that Ella was my biological daughter? Does she get defensive or just correct the person in question? Does she worry what people may be thinking about her and her family?

I know it’s a bit of a ramble, but it is food for thought. I think it’s important to re-evaluate our own assumptions that we make of people and really think about why we make them. And then after all that deep thinking, take a deep breath and realize that your family truly is all that matters and try to let any assumptions made about you roll off your back. You know the truth about what’s really important, and that’s all that matters.