California State Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet claims that RadarOnline, the site which Nadya gave exclusive rights to film her babies, did not get the permits to film octuplets Noah and Isaiah and filmed the babies for longer than state labor laws allow.
I think the investigation is a result of Gloria Allred’s meddling back in May.
Click here for the full story at E Online.
Angels in Waiting attorney Gloria Allred has petitioned the courts to appoint a guardian of the Suleman estate. She claims that Octomom Nadya Suleman is violating child labor laws during photo shoots of the octuplets. According to California labor laws, a nurse and a credentialed studio teacher must be present during photo shoots of children, infants can work only up to 20 minutes a day.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I think the staff and the attorney of the Angels in Waiting behaved innapropriately and unprofessionally. I disagree with the unnecessary calls made to Child Protective Services and the organization’s public attacks against Nadya Suleman. Whether AIW is right or wrong in their claims against Nadya, that’s not the issue. The issue is tact and professionalism. Making T.V. appearances and talking to the tabloids to disparage someone’s character is a low thing to do, especially for a business. It is clearer to me now more than ever that the organization wants to put the babies in foster care, especially after this recent court petition. I agree with Dr. Phil that the babies should remain with their mother, while under the care and supervision of qualified nursing staff.
Angels in Waiting is out of the picture now. It is not their place to be petition the court for anything to do with the Suleman family. This is a job for Child Protective Services or perhaps a biological father fighting for custody. I just don’t see how what Nadya does is any of their business. Maybe she is violating child labor laws, and if so she should be penalized. I don’t think that’s a reason to remove the babies from the home. We’ve all seen things that made us raise our eyebrows but unless the children are being severely neglected or abused, they should stay with their mother. Remember, foster care is usually worse. They probably have a much better life with their wacko mother than they would in a foster care home.
Off my soapbox, here’s a link to the full story: Gloria Allred accuses Nadya ‘Octomom’ Suleman of violating child labor laws
Here is a timeline of the events surrounding Octomom and the octuplets for everyone who needs to catch up:
January
Thirty-three year old Nadya Suleman of Bellflower, California gave birth to the second set of octuplets recorded in history on January 26, 2009. This was also the first set of SURVIVING octuplets. The first set unfortunately resulted in one death just a week after the birth.
The babies, six male and two female, were conceived via invitro fertilization (IVF) and were born prematurely, obviously.
Ms. Suleman gave each baby the surname of “Solomon” (the proposed father’s last name) and the middle name of “Angel”. Here are the first names of the babies:
Noah
Maliyah
Isaiah
Nariyah
Makai
Josiah
Jeremiah
Jonah
The birth weight of the octuplets ranged from 1 lb, 13 oz to 3 lbs, 1 oz. Among this litter are two sets of identical twins. Originally, six embryos were implanted in Suleman’s womb, and two of the embryos split, resulting in twins.
Doctor Michael Kamrava conducted the IVF treatment, implanting six embryos in the womb, despite the guidelines for a woman Nadya’s age limiting the number of embryos to three. It is rumored that the reason for this implantation is so that the leftover embryos from previous IVF treatments wouldn’t be destroyed. After one month of pregnancy, it was evident that five fetuses were present, however, Suleman declined the procedure of selective reduction.
The babies were delivered via Cesarean section by the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bellflower, California. It is standard procedure to deliver babies by C-section whenever there is a multiple birth. It has been documented that these babies were indeed delivered via C-section, although Ms. Suleman is running around telling people that half the babies were born naturally. Watch this video shown at Radar Online to see what I mean.
Suleman claimed that the same sperm donor fathered all 14 children via IVF and that he is a friend of hers named “David Solomon”.
February
On February 5th, Ms. Suleman was released from the hospital and interviewed with NBC. It has been said that the network did not pay her for this interview. During the interview, she denied being on welfare but said she planned to support the children for the time being through student loans and use the schools daycare center to care for them while she pursues a master’s degree in counseling.
It was later brought to light that the Suleman family was on food stamps and that the care of the babies was being paid by Medi-Cal, a California Medicaid system. This and the fact that Ms. Suleman is a single unemployed mother incurred anger in folks across the country, resulting in harassment and death threats against Nadya.
Then, the public relations firm that was representing Octomom, the Killeen Furtney Group, quit because of receiving hundreds of death threats.
On February 23, a man named Denis Beaudoin appeared on Good Morning America, claiming to be an ex-boyfriend of Nadya’s, and voicing his suspicions that he may be the father of at least some of her children.
March
On March 7, Nadya’s publicist, Victor Munoz quit, saying that she was “greedy” and “nuts”.
Just a few days later, on March 10, Nadya Suleman appeared on The Dr. Phil show to clear up all the rumors. During this episode, Dr. Phil facilitated mediation between Nadya, her attorney Jeff Czech, the Angels in Waiting organization, and their attorney Gloria Allred. Previously, the organization had offered Suleman free ’round-the-clock child care and she refused. It was said on the show that there was a “big misunderstanding” that needed to be cleared up. It was unclear what the misunderstanding was. Anyway, it became resolved in mediation, obviously, because Nadya ended up accepting the services of Angels in Waiting. Later, she told Dr. Phil that she wanted to take care of all the children herself and it took her a while to realize that she couldn’t. She also said she had no interest in a reality show.
She refuted claims from her former publicist that she was greedy and crazy, saying that he was not looking out for the best interest of her children and that he was unethical. She didn’t say what he did that was unethical, though.
She also stated that she bought a house for her family. It turns out that her father bought the house for her and her children. It’s a 2,583 square foot 4 bedroom, 3 bath home listed at $564,900.
She admitted to making money by selling pictures of the babies and by other methods (which weren’t stated), but said that all the money made goes into a trust fund for the kids. At the end of the show, Dr. Phil confirmed that there is a trust fund for the kids that is controlled by an independent party.
On March 11, another Dr. Phil show aired showing Dr. Phil McGraw visiting the octuplets in the hospital. They all seemed to be doing well except for two small ones who were still on feeding tubes. There were four that were ready to be released, but the hospital wouldn’t release them until Suleman showed that she could provide a home and adequate care for them. Then the babies would be released two at a time.
Later on the show, Dr. Phil had Ms. Suleman back on stage for another interview. He asked her if she had any plans to marry in the future and she said no and laughed. She said she would feel selfish for taking any time away from her kids and giving that time to someone else. He asked her, “Don’t you want a male role model for your children?” She replied that they have their grandfather.
On March 16, Nadya appeared on the Dr. Phil show again! On this show, the audience asked Nadya some questions. Some people were very supportive while others were pretty critical.
More than once on the show, Dr. Phil pointed out that he did not agree with Ms. Suleman’s decision to have more babies after already having six children. He called it irresponsible, and he’s right. His attitude seemed to be one of “don’t cry over spilled milk,” the damage is done, the babies are here, now what can we do about taking care of the babies? It seemed at the time, that a good solution was in place, regarding the agreement between Suleman and Angels in Waiting, to provide care for the ocuplets.
The first two octuplets were released from the hospital into their mother’s care on March 17. Nadya and her two babies, Noah and Isaiah, were met at their new home by a media frenzy. Angels in Waiting was also present and ready to begin caring for the children. Linda West-Conforti, the head nurse and founder of the organization, called Child Protective Services because she was concerned about the safety of the babies.
On March 23, two more of the octuplets were released to the Suleman home.
Dr. Phil did another show about the octuplets on March 25. This show was all about how it all went down with the nonprofit organization, Angels in Waiting. A few days prior, Octomom had fired the agency, saying she felt like a stranger in her own home, that there was “negative energy”, and that she felt like the staff was watching her every move and waiting for her to screw up. She also said there was poor communication.
Angels and Waiting and their lawyer attacked Suleman’s character, saying that Nadya was rarely present, that she went shopping a lot and was often gone for 12 hours at a time. Linda said that Nadya did not care about the kids, only about the paparazzi and media attention. What bothered me was that West-Conforti admitted to calling Child Protective Services on three separate occasions for issues that could have been solved in another manner. I posted a big rant about it on my blog that I feel no need to repeat.
Czech claimed that Nadya had other caregivers and nurses in place that offered better care than AIW.
On March 26, Dr. Phil aired yet another episode about the octuplets, this time focusing on the fued between Nadya Suleman and AIW. Nadya was not present for this, but her lawyer was. Basically, Allred and Czech, the two attorneys, went several rounds, and it got pretty heated. Nothing was resolved. The whole show was completely unnecessary and tiring.
This same day, another pair of octuplets was released to the home, number five and six, Makai and Jeremiah.
April
On April 1, baby number 7, Joshiah, joined the family in the Suleman home.
Octomom’s van was also vandalized that day by someone throwing a car seat at the back, breaking the rear window and causing body damage. Pretty cruel April Fool’s joke.
On April 10, Ms. Suleman applied for a trademark on the name Octomom with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It appears she wanted to use Octomom as a label for products such as clothing and diapers, and also wanted to secure the name for a variety of television programming.
On April 12, rumors of a reality show in the works began to surface.
Finally, the last octuplet, Jonah, made it home on April 13.
I know there is more history, because there’s been nothing but drama with Octomom since the octuplets were born, but I’ve been working on this timeline for hours so I’m calling it quits.
