She's a spectacle, and just like rubberneckers passing a five-car pileup, Americans can't seem to look away.
The sensation that is the Octomom, otherwise known as Nadya Suleman, has been gracing television sets all over the country. Suleman spoke to Radar Online, an online entertainment magazine, through dangerously full lips about what it's like to be her - and undoubtedly collected a fat check in the process.
Shame is a foreign concept to Suleman, the woman who was catapulted to fame for being irresponsible enough to give birth to octuplets on top of her six previous children with no way to support them. So far, Suleman has reveled in the televised fanfare, milking her 15 minutes of fame for all they're worth. The Octomom did, however, draw the line at starring in an X-rated film even though she was offered a whopping million dollars.
Either she does have a shred of decorum left, or the price just wasn't right.
Suleman knew without a doubt that she wouldn't be able to financially support her brood of children, so what was her plan had she not been offered "a couple of little opportunities" from the likes of Dr. Phil and nonprofit organization Angels in Waiting?
Government assistance, of course!
Yes, the answer was quite simple to the single mother of 14: Mooch off a system meant to help people who actually desperately need financial help.
Looking a gift horse in the mouth, Suleman already fired the nannies from Angels in Waiting who were taking care of her children, saying she would find her own help.
It's anybody's guess as to how she will afford to find the care for enough little ones to form her very own basketball team.
Never once did this woman stop to think that if she couldn't raise her children, perhaps she should not have had them. Suleman claimed that she was living in a state of denial and has just begun to see the reality of being the single mother of 14 children. Ever the irresponsible drain on society, Suleman has simply decided to revel in a system that time after time has fallen prone to being easily manipulated.
Suleman was supporting her other six young children on food stamps, student loans and disability payments. Unemployed before giving birth to her octuplets, Octomom apologized to her imaginary legion of fans for what she calls a "mess," but she shows absolutely no signs of remorse or restraint.
In fact, she's certainly been hamming it up for all the cameras.
While this ordeal is the perfect example of why America desperately needs to have some sort of discourse on welfare reform, it has been portrayed as nothing more than one selfish woman's obsession with the spotlight.
Regardless of how outrageous Suleman's actions are, her children never asked to come into the world this way.
For the sake of the children, taxpayers may just have to stomach the whole ordeal and sit by as those like Suleman work the system for their own benefit.
Naudia Jawad is journalism graduate student. Her column appears on Wednesdays.
