Kathy and Dave U Plus Two

So I get back the other day from my little weekend getaway in Hawaii and log into my little blog site tracker. For some reason, I get a little thrill out of knowing that people other than Kathy and my sister and my parents are reading about our little adventures.

Blog site-tracker thingy informs me that my blog received 36 visits in about a 24 hour period starting on Memorial Day afternoon. Which, I probably don't need to tell you, is a lot more than usual. I know there are people out there who read my blog from time to time, but I'm not egotistical enough to think that masses of people were breaking away from their Memorial Day barbecues because they just HAD to check in on our latest wacky baby adventures.

I look a little closer and notice that 32 of the 36 visits came from people searching Google for "divorce rates for parents of twins", which is a topic I mentioned briefly in a post I made about the effect that having twins has had on our marriage. That's weird, I think to myself. Why in the world would there be this sudden nationwide interest in the divorce rates of parents of twins?

I'm stumped, so I shut down my laptop and glance at the trashy magazine on my bedside table, which has a cover article on Jon & Kate Plus Eight's recent marital problems. A smart person might have made a connection between the flood of visitors to my little website and the fact that a famous couple with twins is having marital problems. Apparently, I'm not a smart person.

So it seems that on Memorial Day, the TLC channel ran the first episode of the new season of Jon & Kate Plus Eight, which, for the uninitated, is a reality show where they follow the adventures of this family that has one set of twins and one set of sextuplets (meaning, um, "plus eight" kids - get it?). The kids on the show are cute and all, but if you've watched the show, you know that the real fun is watching the parents, Jon & Kate, fighting. "Fighting" is kind of a generous term, because mostly it's just Kate scolding her husband in exasperation while he stands there looking like a dejected puppy.

In a shocking (shocking!) development, Jon and Kate have recently run into marital problems which have made them the subject of trashy tabloid magazine articles everywhere. You've probably seen them on magazine covers at your local supermarket checkstand, even if you've never heard of the show. This magazine cover I have right here is headlined "Jon and Kate: A Marriage in Crisis!" Um, not that I read those magazines or anything. Um, yeah.

Anyway, on the first episode, Jon and Kate finally came out and addressed all the recent issues and problems in their marriage, and Kate apparently at some point mentioned how the divorce rate among twin parents is so high, but that she used to think that they were going to be the exception to the statistic. Apparently the mention was prominent enough to send at least 32 nervous twin parents running to their computers to Google "divorce rate for parents of twins".

On the one hand, I feel vaguely protective of my fellow twin parents and think that the sudden joy that the world seems to be taking from their misery is a little sad, especially since I also like to think that Kathy and I are going to be an exception to the scary statistics. On the other hand, clearly I'm a freaking hypocrite, because I have the episode sitting on my Tivo, and the truth is I can't wait to watch it and gawk at the wreckage that is their marriage. Which, who knows, could be just part of the big plan. Part of me thinks that maybe we're all suckers and Jon and Kate are out there somewhere counting their money and having a good laugh together.

Leah and Riley appear to be amused by the whole thing: