Well now, the political blog-o-sphere is all a hopping about Sarah Palin. Some refer to “Palin Derangement Syndrome”, which is the obtuse focus on any rumour that may have anything to do with Sarah Palin. Now some anonymous waitress has said she made a racial slur. Maybe it’s the same anonymous source that said she wanted to ban books at the library.
What I find most interesting is that there’s a segment of women who are poo-poohing her decision to hold this big job because she won’t have time with her kids. Raise your hand if you don’t have enough time with your kids.
Me neither.
As a working mom, I don’t have enough time with my kids.
There are other moms who would judge me because my daughter is in day care (”I didn’t bring her into the world for someone else to raise her!), some who believe I should homeschool, else I abdicate the instruction of my children to people know don’t know and value them; others may feel I’m neglecting their spiritual education.
What is wrong with the father being the primary caregiver? We did it for a while and it was great, it brought Major Man much closer to Army Baby. In my first marriage one of my greatest faults was not valuing the father-baby bond enough. *I* wanted to be the one to do it all. *I* was the Mother. *I* was queen above all.
There is nothing at all wrong with valuing mothers and wonderful, incredible influences on their children. But when we don’t give equal value to our other halves, we fall short. We are 50% of the parenting unit. For so long we’ve insisted on being Queens of the Household, being Supermom, being the mom that works a full time job and is still queen of the castle, the one who has it all. We’ve forgotten to thank, love and adore the husbands who stand up and be real men and take care of their family too.
Who is the only segment of society who you can still make fun of in a crowd? Men. Black, white, brown, whatever the colour, you can still make a joke about a man and it’s shrugged off. When was the last time you uttered “typical man” or “he’s such a guy”?
My point (that I’m taking a long time to get to) is that judging another mother is a useless endeavour and serves only to justify what you, yourself, are doing. “She is neglecting her kids” is followed by an unspoken second stance, “unlike me.” Why are we so sensitive about our own parenting choices? If we were totally confident in the choices we’d made - we would feel no need to comment on anyone else’s situation.
Women need to be in politics. Do moms need to be in politics?
Let me ask it another way: Do you want to live in a country where there are no mothers in political office?
