Parenting Advice From Octomom?
The mom of 14 shares tips on managing tantrums, discipline and life lessons.
Nadya Suleman, better known as “Octomom,” has been at the center of a media frenzy since giving birth to octuplets, six boys and two girls, on January 26th, 2009. She is a controversial figure, but the mom everyone loves to hate is still a mom. We were curious about how she sees herself as a mom, and what she has learned. So we asked her. Here’s what she had to say. – Anita Tedaldi
What’s your parenting philosophy?
Love with some boundaries and rules. I try to be firm but also attuned to my kids’ needs. I think religion is important. So are good manners, good role models and a good education. I try to be present for each one of my children and give them love and attention to the best of my ability. I also try not to judge other parents.
If you could teach your children one life lesson what would it be?
To work hard for what they want and stay the course. Never give up, don’t get distracted or worry about what others think of you. Don’t let anyone else determine who you are and what you want to accomplish. Hopefully, I can help my children achieve their goals no matter what they are.
How do you manage a public tantrum?
For me it would be more like managing many tantrums at once! I try my best to calm the kids and if I can’t do it I’ll leave the store. I try not to feel pressure to have everything under control because all parents have been there.
What shocked you the most about parenting?
The intensity and fierceness with which I love my children.
What’s off limits in your house?
Foul language and disrespectful manners, from the older kids especially. They need to do what I ask them and show respect for adults. I’m there to read stories and play, but when it’s time to clean up and get ready to go out, go to school or go to bed they have to follow my instructions. Mutiny is not an option in my house!
Your favorite dinner recipe/meal?
Mac and Cheese, turkey and homemade baby food.
Come on, this is a joke, right? Asking Octomom for parenting advice? One of the most irresponsible people in America today?
Have to admit, I am stunned you have a story about this lady is here. Irresponsible?
Suggests this is a website I should not be visiting for real work parenting advice.
What she did was sick.
What’s next, modesty advice from Adam Lambert? Privacy lessons by Kate Gosselin? Fidelity secrets from Tiger Woods? Babble just continues to be more and more awesome.
When I first clicked, I assumed that this was going to be a parody. You’re SERIOUS? The biggest problem with you trying to feature this irresponsible celebri-freak and her “parenting” advice is that most of the country is already well acquainted with the facts about her. I’d take parenting advice from Nadya Suleman as soon as I’d take ethics tips from Bernie Madoff. Which is never.
This actually could have been an interesting interview if she (or the interviewer) acknowledged her very unique position as a mom of fourteen and gave advice specific to crowd control and multiple-kid-wrangling. Instead, it’s a stale, generic Q&A featuring softball questions and canned responses that sound like they were copied out of a parenting book. Snorefest!
And yet another reason to stop visiting this site…so why do I do it? I guess it’s the Train-wreck phenomenon….
This is a joke right?? It’s not April fools day, but you think your readers are fools to believe anything that comes from this womans mouth. She wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped her plastisiced face.
After watching her so called mockumentary the one thing that is perfectly clear is she has no control over the children. A child throwing a screwdriver and hitting you in the face is a cry for help, but the state doesn’t seem to care,,,sad, just sad and pathetic.
You have lost a reader,,,,
Is this SERIOUS?! Did this interviewer SEE that nightmare of a documentary or any of the Radar Online footage about this mother in name only? Her children are out of control (not their fault). They hit, they swear, they are rude and demanding and clearly do whatever they please with no fear of their mother figure. Her two year old sun smacked her with a right that would have done Mike Tyson proud and repeatedly called her a bitch. One of the older boys threw a screwdriver at her, drawing blood and called her a bitch and said “F Y” when she told him “not to do that.” Those are just two examples of what is apparently regular and accepted behavior from this poor kids. She has NO parenting skills whatsoever and society is doomed when these 14 hostages to Octomom’s fortune are unleashed on a hopeful well-warned world. Her answers MAY be what she would like to do, but clearly are not. WIll anyone confront this lying sack of dung about the truth? Those kids have never seen the inside of a church, much less her. I guess she thinks the zealots will give her money if she drops the God card. Not that confronting her would do a bit of good-she is in fantasyland and the truth is as alien to her as it is to Casey Anthony.
I think the person who wrote this story made it all up. Parenting advice from Nadya Suleman? Give us a break. Her toddlers call her vile names in public and one threw a screwdriver at her (caught on tape in the British documentary). Another online video clip shows one of her children smacking her in the face. Good job, Nadya! Those are only three examples of the results of Nadya’s “setting boundaries” and teaching good manners. The woman is clearly insane and quite possibly guilty of welfare and workman’s compensation fraud. Holding her up as someone as an authority on child-rearing is baffling.
The one thing she want to teach her children is to work hard??? She`s
only worked 2 years in her entire life and that was over 10 years
ago!!! They`re working hard, alright. To support both her and
THEMSELVES because she`s nothing but a scam artist who fancies herself
a celebrity lifestyle. What a crock. How appropriate this is on BABBLE. She does that real well.
OMG….. Thank you, thank you for my laugh of the day.
You published a funny fairy tale.
The real story is the complete opposite of what you wrote. No, I do not care what she said….she tells so many stories and never tells the same one twice.
Check out her changing stories on the baby daddy and the IVF information.
Check out how she she leaves almost all the child care to babysitters…er nannies.
Check out how she has been living off of welfare style programs for years before having the octuplets and even during that pregnancy. How MEDICAID (medi-cal) PAID for her hospital stay, delivery, and the babies stay in the hospital. And there is nothing to indicate she paid a penny of those bills after making money.
Check out how a mother of 14 spends a lot of time and money in the stores for stuff for herself. Who is really taking care of her kids while she is out so much?
Check out how she treats her mother after her mother let her and the kids live rent free in her house until she had the octuplets.
Check out what she eats (a lot of fast food) and what she has been shown feeding her kids.
Check out how she holds her babies…all along. Like she has no idea what she is doing
Check out the discipline in her house….a kid throwing a screwdriver at her face, cursing, temper tantrums she can’t control.
While not illegal, check out her hoochie mama outfits…often with the kids in the photo..
Check out the Fox and Eyeworks videos. See for yourself. Check out Radar Online and various photo shoots.
The TRUTH is out there and easy to find.
Peanut Santiago wrote what is attributed to Poucette….something went wrong in sending the message. Thank you. And thank you Poucette.
The one thing she want to teach her children is to work hard??? She`s
only worked 2 years in her entire life and that was over 10 years
ago!!! They`re working hard, alright. To support both her and
THEMSELVES because she`s nothing but a scam artist who fancies herself
a celebrity lifestyle. What a crock. How appropriate the site is called BABBLE. She does a bangup job of THAT.
Maybe you should do a column asking Andrea Yates about her child raising tips.Or dealing with the terrible twos from Casey Anthony.
This broad has no business handing out child care advice. The world has seen her idea of “parenting”. The only thing she cares about is the almighty dollar. These octuplets are simply a means to that end. Who puts out a “family Christmas photo” and excludes half the children in the family? The first six are excluded, only her in a slutty get-up and her 8 little cash cows. http://www.momlogic.com/2009/12/merry_christmas_from_octomom.php
I have some parenting advice for HER. You have 14 children, Nadya. Quit with the mani-pedis, shopping, photo ops, etc. and go help those nannies tend to them. ALL of them!
Congratulations, Babble, you have just lost yourselves a reader. I have noticed a gradual degradation of quality on the site lately, but this is the last straw. I will *never* return to this site and will never recommend it to another parent. Adios.
This article is a joke..you need to watch the eyework show, talk about a dysfunctional family this one take first prize!!!!! There is no parenting advice to take from this poor excuse of a Mother, these kids are living in a nightmare of a life!!!
Nadya Suleman is a scam artist, thief and NOT A MOM. What were you thinking asking this woman for advice on parenting, she doesn’t parent! SHE SHOPS. Out there spending the money her children earned, children born with a price tag on the little toes. She planned this a long time ago and now trying to pass herself off as a parent, please!Suleman scammed workers comp, welfare, food stamps, student loans and the kind heart of people that have believed this woman that wakes up telling lies.
She doesn’t love those children, and as she fads from the public eye Suleman will spend even less time with them. With any luck it will be in a jail cell!!!!!!
I am sorry, but did you watch her documentary. The one where her oldest son threw a screwdiver at her, hit her nose and drew blood all while dropping the F’Bomb. Her first response, Son of a B, fade away realizing they are filiming. Ya know what she did next, she told him she was not going to take him to the halloween store. The later in the video he spits on the camera man and at nadya’s general direction. With no apparent punishment.
Her 6 year old still sleeps with a binky, and she showed that on national television.
Her two year old calls her a b&tch, and slaps her, do you need to see the footage, because you can find it on a repetitive loop. Again, a poorly managed time out because she was preening for the camera’s Did my boob fall out again.
Oh and ask her about the time she locked her mother in a trunk and laughed about it while she drove all over town, shaking the poor woman up.
Why on earth is this woman’s “interview” being pimped here? I’m done with this place.
I too thought this would be a parody. Shame.
I don’t know. She isn’t a monster. I think that’s the point here. There’s a real person behind the lable, and she may not have simply set out to exploit her kids. She probably really loves them. I know that’s naive, but it might also be true.
You are a joke, right? You can’t be serious! I especially like her telling everyone to work hard for what you want. this comes from the scam artist of the year. She planned this con from the beginning. Before doing any more articles on things you know nothing about, please check the background of your subjects. The Octoscammer is surely out of her mind.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/39/2009/08/thumb160x_nadyaslap82009.gif
please check this out
Thanks Nadya! And here is some hepful advice for you:The vagina is not a clown car.The point of having one is not to see how many people can come running out of it.There is no way you can afford or emotionally support 14 kids.Also,I would keep things like screwdrivers put away so the kids do not injure you or one another.Hope this helps.
This is so obviously a fake “interview”. I sure hope the author wasn’t paid for submitting it.
It’s like taking sobriety advice from Lindsey Lohan.
This creature is to childcare what Michael Vick is to petcare. All I can say is I feel very sorry for these poor poor kids.
Excuse me, good sirs, is this some kind of a JOKE? Parenting tips from Nadya Suleman? Are you feeling okay? Have you SEEN her so-called documentaries? Specifically the ones aired in Britain and Australia? For those were WAY more illuminating that the Fox special they aired here in the United States.
You might want to try LOOKING at her parenting style before turning that lunatic loose with her LIES and misrepresentations of “mothering”. A mother shark who EATS their young has more maternal instincts than “Octomom”.
Thanks
for all the passionate feedback, we really appreciate your comments. We
ran the piece not because we think shes a positive role model, but
rather because we were curious about how she sees herself as a mom, and
whats shes learned along the way. So we asked her. Looking back, the
context was missing, so we have added an intro. Thanks again for your
input.
– Babble Editors
This is a joke,right? Has to be. None of her answers line up with
what she has demonstrated on the videos she was paid to put out there.
You’ve done a great job of documenting how delusional her thinking
really is!!
No cussing? Caleb calls her the b-word right and left…
Home made baby food? Yeah, that explains the cartloads of baby food
jars she is pictured buying (not that there is anything wrong with
buying baby food- just don’t lie about it…)
Violence and yelling- wait till you get a load of the British documentary!!!
This is a woman who is on video laughing about how she locked her mom in the trunk of her car…
The very LEAST you could do is put a big SPEW alert at the top of the page!!!
I don’t know what’s worse–parenting advice from Suleman or
ANYTHING WHATSOEVER
from Anita I-Lied-To-Adopt-A-Baby-Then-Threw-Him-Out-With-The-Trash Tedaldi.
Fixing the intro does not fix the fact you fed into sulemans ego. Why is it that no REAL reporter wants to go after the facts and write a true story about this greedy welfare mother who gave birth only to get rich. A woman with 6 kids she could not afford and pawned them off on her mother and then did NOTHING to prepare for the birth of the babies…why,,, because she expectd everyone to pony up with the free stuff, a reality show, and a truck load of money. What Sulamn didn’t expect was everyone was smater than she was and looked into her shady criminal past.
The only way you can correct this is to delete the article and notify Sulman why you are getting rid of it. If you don’t then you are resposible for one more day of this woman thinking she is a good mother.
I’m glad I don’t have to be you in the morning looking at myself in the mirror. Better yet, when you go to bed tonight think of the14 children that have to live with this woman. A woman that brings rage out in her own children, doesn’t know where bites and bruises come from, or is sick enough to laugh at locking her own mother in the trunk of a car.
Thanks for the canned answer, Babble Editors. It’s almost as bad as the canned answers in the fake “interview”.
If you are so curious about her parenting, why don’t you put some actual time into learningabout the disturbing situation. A disturbing situation for which she planned. She is truly mentally ill, and yet you simply take what she says at face value, when in fact she is a terrible mother, as evidenced by the video documentaries, Radar Online videos, pictures, stories and other evidence. Her so called tips bear no relation at all to her actual situation. This article is a slap in the face to those women that actually are good mothers.
Amen, Mom-to-four… scandalous to give credence to either of those two!
Interesting that you try to “do over” the intent of this article AFTER getting called out on such a lame effort in the comment section.
Indeed, getting some insight into how the notorious Octomom actually sees herself as a mother is an intriguing idea.
Unfortunately Ms Tedalfi blew it. Asking stock questions and accepting stock answers made this piece a waste of space. A boring and lazy interview with zero original content. I seriously question if an interview actually take place.
F- for the author. I don’t buy this was an actual interview. Where? When? Why? and What is new here? Geesh .Take a journalism course.
D- for the editors for buying this unsubstantiated crap.
A+ to the commenter s for asking the real questions!
You realize that most if not all these comments were posted by the “haters” on the nadyasuleman.com forum who get together to “squelch” anything positive that is said about the mother they named their forum for. Visit their forum and you will see I am right!
Well ‘Annoyed’, I don’t belong to the Nadua Suleman haters website. I am a loyal everyday Babble reader and I STILL am completely horrified that they actually wasted time on this woman. She is clearly a fame seeking, terrible mother who does not represent the image she THINKS she does as stated in this interview.
It is one thing for a kid to have a tempertatrum, all of our kids have. But to have them slap you in the face and curse at you repeatedly and then you want to give parenting advice????
Um, how about take my parenting advice and stop having kids you can’t afford and wasting tax payer dollars. Get a job like everyone else, give your kids some damn discipline and THEN get back to us with whatever advice you have…
This shit is a joke…
first, Anita, your bio still lists you as a mother to 6, but that’s not accurate. Right? You gave up your adopted son after having him for 18 months b/c of “attachment issues.” So, that’s the first thing that needs to be corrected. And the second through fifty fifth things that need to be corrected are pretty much every word of this article. Clearly, you did absolute no research on Nadya Suleman – or you would know that every single word that she said is an outright lie. If you want to be a serious writer, then you need to do better research.
Anyone who has ever heard Nadya speak, even ONCE, knows that these are NOT her responses. She has a language all her own. Unintelligible psychobabble. Leaves the listener wondering if she even understood the question. Someone has (thankfully) cleaned them up. However! Although the (now sterilized) responses can now be understood in a grammatical sense, they are STILL the very typical untruthful, pat answers we have become accustomed to and have grown to expect.
Uh, I have a question? If these comments all come from one source, as the commenter “Annoyed” suggests, where are all the positive comments? Are you suggesting that all positive comments are being given the boot? That would be a first! Especially since the article was meant to portray Nadya in a positive light! Maybe, just MAYBE, nobody buys this load of crap? Just a thought.
Anita pulled a fast one and saved the real interview for her own site. http://www.ovolina.com/lang/en/speaking-with-nadya-suleman-octomom/#respond
Ahhhh, so she took a child in for the time period where he stood the best chance of having a family and the returned him because he wasn’t as awesome as her biological children? What we have here is one selfish nutjob writing a love song to another. Bravo, Babble.
You would have done better to ask the army of babysitters this fraud has to care for not only the octuplets, but the older children as well. Natalie (her real name) doesn’t even know when her children started crawling…A year, she told Matt Lauer. Not that all kids are the same, but as parent I can state catagorically that most kids are WALKING by a year, not simply crawling. How about asking her to parade the baby books that most mothers lovingly fill with every milestone. Guarantee she doesn’t even have one for the oldest child. What’s next-asking her opinion on how to balance the budget? You did not do your probably fine website any justice by including this bonehead.
I am a loyal Babble reader and I too am surprised and dismayed at your story choice. You just went down a few notches in my book.
Sad to read the hate in all of these posts. She is ill-severely mentally ill- but because she is not hallucinating it is a harder type of mentally ill for people to get there head around. This does not make her actions ok nor does it make her fit to be a mother to 14 children but those are her children. Children that are growing up with so much hatred directed at the only mother they have and at them for being born. Children growing up without the benefit of a healthy parents and parenting. This seems more the issue to me. The issue to be discussed is mental illness and parenting and how we as a society manage and support this. I don’t know what Babble was thinking in printing this article/interview but the hate in these posts is toxic. How do we turn this into a meaningful conversation.
Babble Editors:
By giving Ms. Suleman this forum you are giving her credibility that she in no way deserves. It’s like asking Hitler for advice in nation-building.
I don’t know whether she is severely mentally ill, as many suggest, or not, but I do know that she was enabled to be horrifically unethical in her parenting decisions. Her children will suffer from this for life. Please do not white wash her ethics. She is neither a fit parent nor a role model.
Yep, I agree. You’ve lost another reader because of this. This woman is not a real mom. Sure, she’s had a ton of babies surgically removed from her, but she is NOT raising children – she is shopping while nannies are raising children while using their monies.INSANE. I won’t be back.
wow you really scraped the bottom of the barrel here.hamsters that eat their young are better mothers. i wont be back. what on earth were you thinking? everything out of this woman’s baboon lipped mouth is a lie, her children are feral