Kate Gosselin Is Taking The Kids Down Under To Australia For New Year's!

Kate Gosselin and her eight kids are flying first-class to ring in the New Year in Australia. Too bad they have to be back at school on January 4!

Kate Gosselin has packed up her eight children — 10-year-old twins Cara and Mady and 6-year-old sextuplets Joel, Collin, Aaden, Hannah, Leah, and Alexis — and her ever-present bodyguard Steve Nield and is flying the friendly skies across the world to Australia, according to RadarOnline,. The reality TV stars are traveling in style, sitting in the first class section, which would help to ease the pain of the 22-hour flight. And lucky for Kate, 35, TLC is picking up the tab — we calculated that the first-class flights for them all cost a whopping $140,926, according to Qantas — which makes us think that this is little more than a publicity stunt instead of a fun family vacation.

“Kate and the kids flew-out just before midnight last night in what will be a staggered trip to Australia and New Zealand,” a source tells the website. “The kids are excited about visiting both Australia and New Zealand.”

The kids want to live with their dad Jon

But what they’re probably not so thrilled about is the fact that, according to the blog Small Town Gosselins, they have to be back at school on January 4. Take it from us, the 22-hour flight isn’t worth it, unless you’re going to spend a few weeks Down Under. To fly down there and right back is just insane!

Those poor kids are going to be totally jetlagged when they get back to school. And that’s not exactly the best way to kick off the new year. The kids are already having behavioral problems (with two of them being expelled from school), and a bad case of jetlag is only going to make it worse! It seems to us that yet again, Kate and the network are putting the show ahead of the kids best interests.

Kate won’t talk to Jon’s girlfriend

Considering that the ratings for Kate Plus Eight have been dropping, this seems like a desperate ploy by the network to get people to tune in to see the kids holding a koala. I think it would be much more beneficial to the kids to spend their holiday break at home in Pennsylvania, so they can return to school refreshed and ready to learn. What do you think HollyMoms?