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September 9, 2008
Confused Americans for Truth - Parenting In Defiance of Traditional Stereotypes
When Nate was born, the plan was that Bruce would stay home and take care of the baby, while Nate's Mom pursued her career as an information technology executive. After about two years, she decided it would be a Bad Thing for all her children to grow up thinking like Bruce, and maybe it would be better to send him out into the world to earn a living while she raised the little ones. It was a tragic mistake: the kids grew up thinking like Bruce anyway. Apparently, it's genetic.
But the point is, the twins happened in those first two years, and she and Bruce had the option of balancing the needs of her career against the needs of two infant children and a toddler, because Bruce was capable of caring for the children, even if he wasn't the best choice for explaining to an impressionable mind how the world works.
This is the missing piece of the puzzle for people who claim Sarah Palin can't combine being a good parent and a good vice president: she has a husband.
It's easy to see how liberals could overlook the whole husband thing. In Hillary Clinton's best-selling book It Takes a Village, she describes how during a period of relative poverty in which she and Bill only had one servant, she suffered "every mother's worst nightmare" when the nanny called in sick. The despair she felt on that dark day helped her to realize that the government is simply Not Doing Enough to help working mothers. Asking her husband to help was simply not in the list of available choices.
So let's hope we can finally put to rest this ridiculous distraction about Sarah Palin's balancing act. To wealthy journalists and politicians, I can understand how it seems impossible for working-class women to have a career and children, but out here we aren't trapped by old formulas, and if parents are willing to work together to raise the children, you can accomplish amazing things even if you don't have servants.
Respectfully submitted,
Ferdinand T. Cat
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