I had intended to spend this week blogging about some of the nonsense spewed by the conspiracy world and how those crazy ideas can be the seeds for some very entertaining stories. However, I have preempted those posts so I can comment on some nonsense spewed by a political commentator.
So here we go.
The Laughable Gaff
My wife laughed at the comments from Hilary Rosen. My wife knew there would be backlash, and there was.
Let’s be clear. Hilary Rosen wasn’t saying a full time mom doesn’t work. What she said was that Ann Romney was somehow disqualified to advise her husband on women’s concerns about the economy because she hadn’t been employed outside the home. While I think that assumption is absurd it is definitely different from saying it’s easy to be a stay at home mom (which is what so many have complained about.)
The truth is that spending time with any group of people, working with them, listening to them, trying to understand their problems, and working with them to resolve the issues that impact them qualifies you to advise those who haven’t invested that time. I assume, perhaps wrongly, that Hilary Rosen has not made that effort to understand traditional families. I think if she had she wouldn’t have made those comments.
Really Stepping in It
Enter Bill Maher. Boy did he take it to the next level. Rarely, has my wife had so violent a reaction to public commentary. She actually was so upset that she turned our family blog into a public rant about Mr Maher’s comments. Wow.
The problem with the comments is that they reveal Mr. Maher’s failure to understand how hard it is to be a full time mom and the skills required. Get her a** out of the house? Really Bill? Did you think she was sitting around being unproductive? That would show your ignorance. You want to talk about how hard an eight hour work day is but full time moms have a 24 hour work day. . I’d like to see Mr. Maher try to do his job 24x7x365. Have a camera follow him all day every day asking for political commentary, interrupting his meals or his shower to get his thoughts. Better yet, have him try to keep up with a full time mom for week (I’ve tried to do this, giving my wife a vacation to visit her family without the kids so I know what it’s like). Trust me. He will quickly learn just how hard it is when you can’t get a minute to stop to do something for yourself.
Full time moms add tremendous value to this country. Most of the volunteer organizations couldn’t operate without full time moms. Schools would be in a world of hurt and need much greater funding if it weren’t for full time moms. The skills required to be a full time mom are essentially the same as those required to be a successful CEO of a small corporation (small enough that they don’t have an administrative assistant.) They manage the books, handle procurement, manage everyone’s schedules, make sure all the work is completed on schedule, etc. etc. But making that comparison doesn’t even hold up because that approach requires comparing full time moms to others based solely on their management acumen. It’s convenient because it lets us put a price tag on motherhood.
There is no price tag on motherhood. The value cannot be quantified. Perhaps that is why so many people discount it. The value of a CEO is determined by the current profitability of the company. When the profitability wanes the CEO will be fired. The value of teaching a future generation how to love and serve and deal with human interactions can’t be quantified.
I think it is fantastic when a woman has an opportunity to choose between being a full time mom and being employed outside the home. I applaud the women in those situations who choose to be full time moms and have enough strength to handle the incredible workload and the public ridicule that comes with that decision.
I think it is sad that so many people undervalue full time moms. Perhaps more sad is that there are people trying to help single parents (and we should call them single parents rather than single mothers because there are single fathers out there with similar struggles) who get in their own way by disparaging full time moms.
Single parents should value full time moms more than any other group. Full time moms help single parents with their children if only with all the volunteer hours they give. If single parents want advocates in government they can do a lot worse than compassionate full time mom.
Disclosure Note
Neither I nor my wife comes from a single parent family. Both of us have only been married once. We celebrated our 20th anniversary last year. I am not a Romney fan. I did not vote for him in the primary and wish there were an alternative to Obama or Romney in November.
Thanks for this babbling. Our mother once told me that the truly liberated woman was the one who was at home, her own boss, etc. She could clearly see through the deception at the dawn of the feminist movement. "Liberation", she said, "they aren't liberated going to work for someone else!" But your point about Rosen's comment about not being qualified to comment on the economy is more what she was trying to say. Then Obama should not be qualified to promote health care if that logic follows. Thanks for standing up for all of us stay at home moms!
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