Because our family enjoys watching the Sarah Palin’s Alaska series on TLC, we settled in for another great episode with lots of Alaska wildlife. I kind of rolled my eyes when I saw it was the one with Kate and her eight. Not because of the kids, because I like to think I can handle high levels of kid chaos. But I could see the crash and burn that was inevitable, taking Kate into the Alaska wilderness to camp. A woman that gets manic about finger-painting messes may not exactly be in her element when she has to cook her food over an open fire.
The initial meet-and-greet with the kids and Sarah/Todd and Kate went well and they bantered back and forth about how they are alike in many ways. Later that day, Sarah and Kate attended a mini-seminar entitled “Learn to Return,” which sounds kind of scary for a non-camper, if you ask me. The high point of this training was either Kate realizing that the area they would be camping in is a popular bear area of Alaska or watching Willow, Sarah’s daughter, get fake-bit on the butt by a bear skull. I chuckled then and now, in an evil way of course.
So camping day ensues and they trek in the wilderness to their camp site. It is cold (imagine the odds) and it begins to drizzle. Kate says it is raining but I, as a TV viewer, couldn’t see it or the effects of it so I have to assume it was drizzle-like. It is here that I would like to interject that, if I were a guest of the former governor of the state of Alaska, I would have gone along and done what they were doing just because I was the guest. But Kate whines incessantly about the cold and stands underneath this tent for pretty much the duration of the show. Meanwhile, EVERYONE else is catching fish, picking up firewood, making hotdogs, and the kids are having a blast, just doing stuff that kids love to do. They were oblivious to the rain and the cold.
To make a long story short, Kate eventually packs the kids off because of her own unhappiness. I’m not sure whether to fault the camera crew for focusing in on Kate’s unhappiness, but I know for sure that Kate is a whiner and a half that needs to suck it up. Were it not for her original TLC show, she would be at home in the ‘burbs of Pennsylvania and learning to make do. One word = DIVA.
But before you think I need to walk a mile in her shoes, I have to tell you that I already have. I once took an overnight trip with a family we are friends with to a theme park. The dad, although extremely gifted in his line of work, kind of rubs me the wrong way because he tells you what it is and, if you disagree, there is something wrong with you. So between arriving at the hotel, deciding on sleeping arrangements, breakfast the next day, getting there, deciding what rides to do, deciding on a restaurant, having lunch, and visiting the water park area, I am pretty much over the outspoken opinion of my traveling companion. At the end of the day, I and my kids are only too happy to decide we are ready to go and leave the other group behind. But I was not a whiny complainer diva. But needless to say, we have yet to take another vacation with this family. It was one of those super fun vacations you’d never take again.
