On Tuesday, Kate Plus 8 returned to TLC and series star/perennial mother of the year candidate Kate Gosselin has been making the press rounds in support of the show that made her famous.
Of course, media attention has always been a double-edged sword for Kate, and her show’s return from a lengthy hiatus has been accompanied by a new round of accusations that Gosselin is an abusive mother who’s not equipped for the task of raising eight kids.
This time, the allegations supposedly come straight from Kate’s own diary, excepts of which have been published in the Robert Hoffman tell-all Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World:
“Mady was grouchy and received a few spankings with the spanker that newly joined the emergency supply stash in the big blue bus!!!! She eventually happied up!” reads one of the tamer entries from 2006.
Kate’s frustration – and abuse – escalate as the journal entries progress, eventually reaching the point where she casually discusses striking her son Colin with an object and pulling his hair:
“I am too rough with him and the girls see that,” Kate writes. “I feel so guilty that I treated him like that that I will set out tomorrow to be a better mommy.”
She goes on to describe a 2007 incident in which she fleew into a rage after the 2-year-old knocked over some high chairs:
“I grabbed him and spanked him as hard as I could and thought I may seriously injure him so I sent him to his crib…. And whipped him into it very hard!…I pulled Collin up by the hair [and] spanked him.”
Kate also admits to striking children Alexis and Aaden with an unspecified object.
She frequently expresses remorse for her actions, and at one point even speculates that she and then-husband Jon may not be fit to raise so many children:
“Things spiraled quickly into a big ugly argument where Jon said really ugly things in front of the girls numerous times and he scared me about his sanity, seriously!” she writes. “I feel like we are the worst parents in the whole world!”
Watch Kate Plus 8 online for more of Gosselin’s seriously questionable parenting decisions.
