I got quite a lot of hits from something I wrote the other day that was quite critical of Sarah Palin for going to work while she has a down syndrome baby.. when she doesn't have to. I happen to believe that IF ONE CAN, ONE parent, doesn't have to be the mom necessarily, I'm in favor of dads too, ought to be at home while the kiddos are young. When the kids get to be school age, it's a different story. In my opinion, just talking about children who do NOT have a disability, being able to be with them IF YOU CAN when they are young is a great opportunity to raise the child you so wanted to give birth to. There are some that agree with me, and some that do not. I would imagine if I talked to Michelle Obama, who I admire greatly, she would not agree with me. From People.
Michelle Obama was in a bind. A prospective employer wanted to interview her for an executive position, but she was home on maternity leave and still breast-feeding her newborn second daughter. "I didn't have a babysitter," Obama recalls now, with an unapologetic shrug. "So I went in there with the stroller and did the interview. And Sasha slept through it, thank goodness." Obama got the job, as a community affairs director at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where her boss, Susan Scher, calls her behavior at the interview quintessential Michelle: "It was, 'This is who I am, and this is my life.'"
What working mother couldn't identify with that babysitter dilemma? And how many of them would have the guts to show up for the interview with baby in tow? According to her admirers, such is the particular appeal of Obama, 43—equal parts Everywoman and Supermom—as she plunges into the campaign to help elect her husband the nation's first black President. A naturally private homebody and professional dynamo—"Politics is a waste of time," she once said—Obama is now cutting back on the $212,000-a-year job she landed with baby Sasha that day and taking her working-mom act on the road. Will her take-it-or-leave-it tone click with voters? "A strong woman will alienate some, energize others," says Democratic strategist Carter Eskew, who worked for Al Gore's campaign in 2000. "But it's a lot better than the alternative, which is to bottle yourself up."
You notice that she went to work when her second daughter was a newborn, and it's not clear to me that the reason to work was done out of economic necessity. Her choice would not be my choice. I think if she went to work with a newborn baby that had down syndrome after deciding that she would have it despite knowing it would be a lot of work, I would feel exactly the same way I feel about Sarah Palin going to work 3 days after having her baby.
Now, I"m about to talk about my dog. I'm NOT trying to do a comparison one on one with a baby but to make a point concerning care for living things. I have a great dane and he is enteringi into his twilight years. GD's have joint and hip problems and he is not only getting incontinent but when he goes out in the yard, he quite often falls down and has to be helped back up. He's difficult to get up (my next dog is going to be one I can lift by myself). I bought some papasan cushions, cut them in half and resewed them so that the halves fit into the washing machine and I also got some waterproof pads. That's what he sleeps on or rests on during the day. What I'm saying is that he is a lot of work, and we made a decision that we would forego vacations that would leave him in a kennel until after his death. I hope he lives a nice long time but generally, GD's don.t, as a breed. I knew that when I got him; I read that when he got old that he would have a lot of difficulty getting around and that he might get where he couldn't even walk at some point. GDs are loveable and we decided to get him anyway. My point is that I have made a lot of sacrifices and curtailed some activities that normally we would go on, BECAUSE we have him and want to make sure he has a good life.
I, again, don't think you can compare a child with down syndrome to a dog, but I'm speaking about the idea of waiting or sacrificing for other activities until or unless you can, especially IF you make the choice to take on somebody or something that you KNOW is going to offer work and challenges.
It's not my understanding that Palin's husband Todd stays home with the child. I think ONE of them should. They decided to have a child with disabilities.
But here's the deal. Even though I feel strongly that this is what both of them, Michelle AND Sarah, it's not MY CHOICE, is it? I can talk about it and express my opinion, and feel and act differently, but I am not the ruler of either of their lives. But in John McCain's world, which now includes Sarah Palin, a woman's choices on how she wants to raise her family are narrowed. In McCain's world, and in Sarah Palinl's view, a woman who decided upon finding out that her baby would have down syndrome would not be able to get an abortion. (Mind you, I am NOT advocating for abortion like some kind of regular birth control.) Or a woman who finds herself raped wouldn't be able to get an abortion. I respect those who don't want to get abortions, but I don't want them taking choices away from others who don't feel the same way.
And, one more time on the abstinence only education. In Texas, it's mandatory to take that class or you don't pass. That's not giving mothers who would like to have their children taught about birth control a choice in the matter. And if you say, well, you could teach them that at home, you can do the SAME thing with abstinence. Where's MY choice in how I want to raise MY family?
In a John McCain/Sarah Palin world, women wouldn't get equal pay for equal work and would be taking steps back into being second class ciitzens who are infantalized and cannot make choices for themselves. (And in fact, require old white men to decide for their women who Sit at the Feet of their Masters.) . IN an Obama/Biden world, women get to make choices, EVEN IF I DON'T ALWAYS AGREE WITH THE ONES THEY MAKE and wouldn't make the same ones.