Kate Gosselin Admits She's Been an 'Overzealous' Parent: 'It Comes from a Place of Love'

Over the past 18 years, Kate Gosselin has learned a thing or two about raising children.

“I am a very protective parent, as you probably know. It comes from a place of love,” Kate, who also shares eight children — 14-year-old sextuplets Aaden, Alexis, Leah, Joel, Hannah and Collin, and twins Mady and Cara, both 18 — with ex-husband Jon Gosselin, said on Tuesday at the Television Critics Winter Press Tour.

“I do think that I care so deeply that I have been, at times, overzealous,” she explained at the event, held at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, California.

Audiences first met Kate, 43, when she starred on Jon and Kate Plus 8 and later Kate Plus 8. This June, Kate and the twins will return to TLC with her new show, Kate Plus Date, which documents the matriarch as she dips her toes back into the dating pool.

“This was a journey and it was really neat because in coming up with this saying, ‘Yeah, I’d love to date, you know, on TV, the safety that it provides. I feel comfortable on television.’ The whole thing of it was, I didn’t realize how awkward I’d feel and how this whole journey takes place,” Kate said of the experience.

She added, “I learned so much about myself and so much about how I react to different situations. And it’s painful at times. I’m hard to watch, exciting, awkward, fun and really rewarding.”

And when it comes to Kate finding love again, the twins, who will both appear on the show, couldn’t be more thrilled for their mother.

“We’ve been nudging her to date for years, I think, and we’re all, all eight of us are so glad that she finally is,” Mady said. “She deserves to be happy. Everyone deserves to be happy.”

This fall, the twins will be going off to college — but Kate isn’t concerned about her two firstborns leaving the nest.

“As far as Mady and Cara, particularly, and all the kids, I think that they’re such good girls that I don’t have to keep after them. They’re self-driven. They have goals and dreams, and they’re just good kids. And it is scary nowadays, all the things we have to worry about, about social media and whatever, and I don’t — I am worried but, particularly, with them turning 18 going off to college soon, I don’t have to worry,” said Kate.

“They’re very wise, good decision-makers,” she added. “I don’t know what I did to deserve such amazing kids, but they blow me away every day.”

The sisters have also considered the possibility of TLC cameras following their journey at school.

“I mean, that’s absolutely up to them. I think it’s something that Mady and Cara have discussed potentially. And that’s up to them,” Kate said.

She continued, “I imagine as with anything, some may want to, some may not. And that’s totally fine, it’s up to them. It’s always been up to them.”

Kate Plus Date premieres on TLC in June.