Kate's New Car Drama, Coupon Blogging, & Offering Advice To Students

Pittsburghlive.com: Speaking at a college campus may have inspired Kate Gosselin to put together a vocabulary list as an outline.The former nurse and mother of eight, whose life inspired a reality show on The Learning Channel, admitted she was a "crammer" in college. "I wrote my speech on the way here," she told an audience of predominantly women and students on Thursday at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.

Gosselin, 36, is a blogger on the website CouponCabin.com and travels to speaking engagements across the country. Yesterday, she used the words strength, perseverance, courage, focus, resilience and endurance in discussing a life that included parenthood to multiples, sudden fame and divorce. Gosselin encouraged students to complete their studies."I have eight kids to send to college someday. I'm speaking from a mom's perspective when I say work hard and do your best," she said. Now a single mother, she reviewed a day in her life, from overseeing homework, dinner and showers to bedtime. After cleaning up from "Hurricane Gosselin," she packs eight lunches before going to sleep. Her 2010 appearance on "Dancing With the Stars" also took perseverance, she said. The judges gave her low scores for her stiff dancing, and she was voted off after several episodes."Did anyone here vote for me?" she asked, to audience applause. "Thank you. I recommend you see your eye doctor. Who were you watching?" she joked. She found courage when her divorce "went so ridiculously public," and she had to face down paparazzi and deal with the tabloids' "lies of the day." "I feared people would not be able to see the real me, because of all of the crap -- sorry -- that was written about me," she said.

"I want my kids to grow up and look back on their childhood and say, 'You made good decisions. I'm proud of you. I love you and thank you,'" she said."I thought she was really down to earth, just a regular person," said Marian Jarina. She said she liked Gosselin's advice to moms and students to never give up, to persevere and to achieve one's goals. Student Brandon Mitchell, 20, of Masontown said he understood how having eight children could cause stress."I liked what she said about not needing everyone's approval. If her kids think she did a good job, that was what was important."

Kate Gosselin outrages child safety group after her 'unsupervised' young son crawls under the family van: DailyMail.co.uk

Reality star Kate Gosselin has outraged a child safety group after her son crawled underneath her van in Reading, Pennsylvania. They claim the little boy was lucky to escape with his life after jumping underneath the minibus, while he appeared to be grabbing a piece of schoolwork he had dropped. He and his eight siblings had just gotten off the school bus, where their former Kate Plus 8 mother was reportedly waiting in the family van. But despite his other family members jumping in the vehicle, the youngster decided to dart underneath it to retrieve his paper. Kate allegedly remained in the driver's seat when her children got off the bus. While the little boy safely got into the van after his dangerous duck, the incident has still outraged child safety groups.KidsAndCars.org president and founder Janette Fennell told RadarOnline: 'A minivan is a 3000-pound lethal weapon and having children crawling around it is not prudent.'

Miss Fennell said Kate should personally made sure all her brood got in safely. She said: 'She should have gotten out of the car to supervise them, especially when you have that many children.' 'Kids tend to put themselves in harms way in an instant. 'You should never leave children unattended in or around motor vehicles. 'Even if they are all capable of getting themselves into the van and getting buckled up, children at that age are unpredictable.' She added: 'She is blessed she didn't run him over.' Miss Fennell also was keen to point out that motor vehicle accidents are the number one killer of children. She said 50 children are backed over by vehicles every week in the US, and at least two of them die. A further 1.5 children are killed every week by being driven over forwards very slowly in a parking lots. The criticism will come as a further blow to the one-time darling of reality television. It was announced in August that her show Kate Plus 8 was cancelled after seven seasons and 150 episodes. She has since found employment as a coupon blogger.

CouponCabin.com announced today the news about its new hire, who is a longtime advocate of couponing. Company president Jackie Warrick said: 'Kate has embraced coupons her entire life. We look forward to sharing the unique insight she has gained over the years.' Kate added: 'No matter what your financial situation is, there’s no reason not to use coupons. It’s like free money in your pocket!'

On a final note... Having young children of my own, there are days I'm mortified at the things kids do in a split second. Having said that, I think no one has any right to judge Kate based on this incident. Do we even see her as the one in the car? And if she was, do we see what happened after this? Why are there no photos of anyone getting out? What if she didnt know? When you have children this age and cameras following you to take photos to make you look bad at any given moment, then please contact me. BM