No political comments, please. I am just focusing on the rudeness of behavior.
"Sarah Palin's Alaska" aired on Dec 12. Since the Palin show and the "Kate plus 8" Gosselin show both air on TLC, the network sent Ms. Gosselin and her 8 kids (and at least one bodyguard and one nanny were mentioned in passing or shown on film) to Alaska, and off on a camping trip with the Palin family, including Sarah's father, brother, and her husband Todd, and some of her kids. The show showed preparation for the trip, Sarah and family welcoming the Gosselin group into her home, and the Palins being very hospitable and friendly.
At the actual camping site, everything was set up for the group. The Gosselins did not have to do anything involving pitching tents, they just had to get there on private plane. (Ms. Gosselin was not alone, film showed the bodyguard at least once). It was raining lightly, but the Palins proceeded to be very involved with entertaining the children. Sarah's father especially was WONDERFUL with all the kids, showing them all kinds of things found by the river and in the woods around the campsite, and Sarah's brother involved the kids in helping to build the fire. Sarah and company got the kids involved in fixing lunch, they made smores over the campfire, and all the kids looked like they were having fun.
Ms. Gosselin, in contrast, stood under the tent flap out of the rain, complained about the cold, the rain, how much she hated camping, asked the Palin's daughter "Do you enjoy pretending to be homeless?", and finally threw her moose hotdog onto the ground, had a temper tantrum, and insisted they all leave. After two hours. When Sarah asked how would she break it to the kids, Ms. Gosselin just told them they were leaving. When some of the kids protested, she told them they would be Palins now, if they did not do as she said they could not be Gosselins any more.
Sarah was gracious and said nothing bad about Ms. Gosselin. Her father, however, said "She [female dog complained] from the minute she got off the plane." Sarah and family continued to enjoy the camping trip as planned.
My take: Even if you do not particularly like something, you can pretend to if your children are having a great time. I do not like camping, but I have been with my kids on scout trips and kept the complaints to a minimum because the kids were having FUN. Ms. Gosselin is PAID to do these kinds of things by TLC. She was a rude guest and also a very unprofessional reality "star".
