Is ‘9 by Design’ the solution to Kate Gosselin’s problem?

There’s a wonderful new show on Bravo called “9 by Design” that deserves mention for a number of reasons. It’s yet another example of the genius of Bravo’s casting and production development teams. Whether you like it or not, Bravo knows how to find compelling personalities who have extraordinary talents and build docu-reality series around them (a la Jeff Lewis, the brilliant and obsessive L.A. house-flipper and star of “Flipping Out”). 

The Novogratz family continues Bravo’s streak. Bob and Cortney own Sixx Design, a New York-based design firm that has completed some truly remarkable transformations of urban spaces from run-down grunginess to modern elegance with a beautiful mix of contemporary and vintage elements.

Oh, and they also have six kids — including two sets of twins! — with the seventh arriving in the episode that aired this week.

On the surface, this might seem like just another program leaping on the “people with a lot of kids” reality-show bandwagon that TLC started with “Jon & Kate Plus Eight” and continued seemingly ad nauseum with “19 Kids and Counting” and several other programs. To be fair, it does seem that Bravo would have been less likely to greenlight “9 by Design” if it weren’t for the shows that came before it.

But to say that is to sell the Novogratz family short.

Bob and Cortney buy properties and redesign them from the ground up. And they live in them for a time until they find a renter or buyer, at which point they move on to the next property. This means that they move often — 11 or so times since they’ve been married — and in the middle of their children’s young lives. 

Despite that, their kids seem remarkably well-adjusted. Wolfie, the oldest Novogratz child at 11, says at one point in the pilot that he’s moved eight times. You’d think that kind of instability would create psychological problems, but in fact, it seems the opposite is true. The kids are mature and down-to-earth, but not in the stereotypical too-mature-too-soon mold of the movies.

I think it helps that Bob and Cortney involve their kids in their decisions. When the family discovers in the pilot that they have to move into a very small apartment while their next house is being built, they take the kids out to a flea market to buy a few key pieces with which to make the apartment more like home and let the kids help them pick out the pieces and place them in the apartment. 

Bob and Cortney are great parents, in my mind, because they’re integrating the lives of their kids, as best they can, with their business goals and interests.

I hate to contrast this with the dilemma of Kate Gosselin, mostly because I’m loath to discuss her in general, but I think Cortney Novogratz leads by example in the working reality-show parent arena because she’s working and raising kids simultaneously, not working in order to raise her kids. I’m not suggesting Kate’s an absentee mom, after all, she turned her basement into a dance studio so she could rehearse for “Dancing with the Stars” and be near her kids. However, I think Kate needs a change of mentality. Reality shows should not be part-and-parcel of a career, especially if they aren’t integrated with her responsibilities as a parent. She would be better served by finding marketable skills (not including celebrity) and using those to support her family.