I'm not even sure you can really fault people for critiquing her decision since, based on her tone, she seems to have some preconceptions about stay-at-home moms, too.

 Reply

"Get a fucking nanny?" Who does that commenter think the nannies are? Ducks?

Nannies are, by and large, women. And when they're good, they are, themselves, doing something very positive.

As to the suggestion that caring for one's children is not something "positive," I'm at a loss.

The unthinking privilege and elitism on display in some parts.... Sheesh!

 Reply

- Wake up early, to check my email re: a writing project.

- Get kids ready for/to school (with husband).

- Work for two and a half hours in my wee home office, writing about the Bush Administration torture issue.

- Run to school to put sunscreen on my kindergartner, before the class picnic. Slather it on two other kids, too, as long as I'm there.

- Work for two more hours, this time writing about Israel/Palestine.

- Go to the skin doctor to have a mole removed.

- Work for 1/2 an hour, re: Israel/Palestine.

- Set up for pre-Talent Show practice for my daughter and four friends.

- Go to school to collect said daughter and friends; facilitate practice, send them outside to play in the sunny day while I clean up our messy backyard a bit.

- After posting this comment, I'll be collecting my son from his drum lesson; he was brought to said lesson by the husband/dad, who came home early to do so, so that I could facilitate the practice.

- Then I'll make dinner and we'll eat. Husband will do dishes.

- Then we'll go pick up the foster child I tutor in reading for an early summer ice cream break.

- Then bed time, and a little more writing for me.

I write all this because I can't honestly say which of these moments is the most meaningful for me. (Well, not the mole removal). I think it might have been the moment that my hand was on my daughter's skin, rubbing sunscreen into her beautiful arm, and I was laughing with her and her round-faced, multi-hued friends.

But the professional stuff comes a close second to those lovely kid moments, and that's just the truth.

I am a lucky, lucky, insanely lucky woman. I hope that Moeller feels that she is too, and entirely ignores the people who would tell her otherwise.

 Reply

How do feminists reconcile this with the "go girl!" rhetoric directed toward a woman quitting her job and becoming a full-time mom? Is it rational to celebrate "choosing your choice (to be a housewife)" and lament the lack of women in boardrooms and congress?

 Reply

It's backwards, outdated, and insulting to want to raise your own kids? Fuck, man, if I don't want to raise them I'm sure as hell not going to have them!!

 Reply

at least this woman knows her limitations

ahem

 Reply