When I first started watching “17 Kids & Counting” I was expecting a more hectic version of Jon & Kate Plus 8. You know lots of screaming & crying & whining. Instead, I found a family that just seemed to work together. Last night there was a rerun of Kate having a meltdown because she was sick on her spa day in Salt Lake City.

Tonight, the Duggars took their oldest 11 kids & went to El Salvador to try & help. It’s a totally different vibe seeing a family that is grateful for what they have. Granted, Jim Bob is still using an entire can of hair spray every week. It’s just so nice to see people giving back & teaching their kids about caring about someone other than themselves. They are teaching them that you can bring hope to someone with cerebral palsy, or whatever their life’s situation is. I can only imagine how hectic it is with that many kids & while I don’t agree with all of the Duggar’s beliefs, they just seem like good people.

You learn something new everyday. Tonight I was watching Wife Swap & I learned about larping or live action role playing. As far as I can tell people dress up like elves & then hit each other with fake swords in a medieval type setting.

To me, it just looks like a lot of work. I could never keep in character or memorize an entire new language. I’d much rather go on Vegas vacations. The larping family is learning that they need to have jobs. Granted I wouldn’t mind throwing bean bags at people while saying “I bring forth an ice storm.” like it’s totally normal. There is no way I could do this without breaking out laughing. Who says TV isn’t educational? Am I the only one who didn’t know about larping?

I promised myself that I wasn’t going to watch Jon & Kate Plus 8. It made me have an anxiety attack just seeing the commercials. I heard all the talk about their new gigantic house so I wanted to see it. However, that episode wasn’t on, so I thought, “Ok I’ll just watch this marathon until I see the new house & then I can see the big deal is all about.”

So I’ve watched most of this season. I’ve read about all of the internet battles about Kate being a control freak. My take on it is that with that many kids, most people would go insane. I hate how she always corrects what Jon says & treats him like a child. Sometimes she even says “Use another word” to her husband if he doesn’t describe something the way she wants him to. It really should be called Kate Plus 9. However, I’ve cut her a lot of slack. I just saw that she doesn’t let her kids talk at the dinner table. She calls it quiet dinner. The first person that talks has to go to time out. Not even I can defend that.