Kate Gosselin says her troubled son, Collin, has been sent away from home to treat “special needs” … and fans are far from pleased.
Obviously, Collin’s personal situation has sparked debate and sympathy from the public, as no one likes to see an adolescent struggle.
The 41-year-old single mom’s conduct – past and present – has come under heavy scrutiny, however, as it pertains to the child.
Kate’s Instagram post promoting her People cover story, which featured all the kids but Collin, has quite the collection of harsh comments.
Followers have lashed out, accusing her of exploiting her 12-year-old son’s issues for her own personal gain – nothing new for Kate.
“Shame on you for being so desperate for attention that you disclose this information about your beautiful boy!” one fellow mom wrote.
“There is no low too low for you,” another opined.
“Colin,” the fan said, “deserves better from you.”
Damn, that’s rough, but after Kate admitted spanking Collin and being “too rough” on him in an attempt to deal with his personal issues?
Well, fans are even more pissed.
“I can’t help but think, one day Collin will read about himself on the Internet, and really think there’s something wrong with him,” says a fan.
Collin has reportedly been undergoing care for at least one month at a Philadelphia-area facility nearly two hours from the family home.
“[There’s] a fairly fluid diagnosis of what those needs are, but he needs to learn certain strategies to help him deal with things,” she said.
“This has been a struggle we’ve had for a very long time, and it’s one I’ve dealt with on my own. I’ve felt very alone in this.”
“By the same token, it’s not something that has only impacted me or him … our entire family has been impacted [by this].”
Meanwhile, a source close to the children’s father, Jon Gosselin, says he’s furious at the reality star for taking their son’s problems public.
“Jon can’t believe that Kate is talking about this for the cover of a magazine,” the insider said. “Collin is just a kid, and deserves his privacy.”
Jon is also beside himself that his daughters called him a deadbeat in the interview, but that’s a whole different story for another time.
In any event, the abuse allegations against Kate are not new. See Robert Hoffman’s 2014 tell-all, Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World.
According to the book, Kate acknowledged being “too rough” with Collin when he was as little as two years old and wouldn’t obey her.
“I feel so guilty that I treated him like that,” she wrote, of disciplining him harshly in 2006. “I will set out tomorrow to be a better mommy.”
In January 2007, when Collin knocked over a high chair and spilled a bag of beans, Kate wrote in her diary that she flew into a rage.
“I was instantly so SO angry, that I grabbed him and spanked him as hard as I could and thought I may seriously injure him,” she wrote.
“So I sent him to his crib til Jon came home!” she wrote. “I have never felt that I may seriously injure a child but today was that day!”
Kate says she noticed Collin’s temper, and observed that she did not like “that he doesn’t know how to handle his frustration and anger.”
Fast forward ten years, and here we are.
She’ll be dealing with the frustration and anger of the public the more she talks about it, and it’s hard to say the criticism isn’t warranted.
We just hope Collin is doing better.