LiveWire

A post by Pat

Sarah Palin’s announcement opened up the spigots for liberal diatribes against her. They’re falling all over themselves to take a jab at this woman who exhibits too much gusto and independence for their stereotype of a female religious conservative.

Sally Quinn chimed in with a column about Palin’s negligent mothering. How peculiar that liberal women who deem themselves feminists are suddenly enamored of stay-at-home child care. It is a superficial, insincere concern that applies only to Sarah Palin. Clearly they think it’s delightful to draw attention to some presumed hypocrisy on Palin’s part for being a religious woman who doesn’t want to stay home and look after the kids. It doesn’t come off because these harpies are unable to comprehend that true feminism is not a militant order of leftwing maniacs.

Palin’s Peculiar Family Values

I’d like to know the names of those mean-spirited adults who mocked and ridiculed her special needs child. I don’t believe it for a second. I think what she is talking about is that she was criticized for the way she dealt with her pregnancy with Trig and her care giving of him after his birth.

Remember, Sarah Palin is a right-wing, evangelical Christian for whom “family values” and the role of the mother are paramount. Many right-wing Christians don’t believe women should work outside the home. Yet here was Sarah Palin, resigning as the governor of Alaska, for political reasons.

This is not putting your family first. We should not be surprised.

Please indulge me in a personal rant on this topic.

I was a stay-at-home mom with two babies when the trend toward working mothers started. Shows like Phil Donahue were continuously propagandizing for women to leave their children in the care of others and go forth to “fulfill” themselves. I distinctly remember watching Donahue one particular morning. I was still in my vomit-stained bathrobe because the morning was so busy with a 2-yr old and an infant. The kitchen was a mess. Donahue had on a panel of working moms telling their glorious stories. The one I remember most clearly was a woman who had five children ranging in age from teen to toddler. She was a doctor AND a lawyer. I’m not kidding. Besides working and caring for her family, she had hobbies: gourmet cooking and mountain climbing. She and her five children were immaculate, well-dressed and beaming happily into the camera with perfect teeth. I felt like sh*t.

Mothers were actually being told it was better for their children if they left them in the care of others. Working mothers spent “quality time” with their children. What part of my day wasn’t quality time I wondered. Was it not quality time when my 2-yr old at play looked up into my face and we smiled at each other? Was it not quality time when my infant slept in my arms? Was it not quality time when it was mommy who soothed a hurt?

Let’s not even get into the financial sacrifices made by a one income family. The forfeited compounded interest on lost savings means we will be paying for child care until our dying day.

I am not interested in a debate about who is a better mother. I had no argument then or now with another woman’s decision to work. She is just as much a loving mother as anyone else. What I resented back then was the pressure a woman felt to get out of the house. At least women in my day had more of an option than women today. Eventually a critical threshold was reached where the number of two income families pushed the economy to the point where one income was a serious disadvantage. Women eventually had to leave the home broken-hearted, not for a glamorous career, but to spend a miserable day at a tedious job for a paycheck.

It was the likes of Sally Quinn who lead the cheers for the brave new world of women’s lib. Yes, it was high time but the demeaning of women who chose a traditional option for child care was cruel. It is the same ilk that today is chiding Sarah Palin for not looking after her family properly by pursuing a career.

For the snide, hypocritical criticism of Sarah Palin’s lifestyle and for my admittedly deep-seated resentment toward haranguing feminists who should mind their own business about someone else’s family life, I would like to roll up Sally Quinn’s column into a ball and shove it down her throat.