To all mothers, I'm asking this question......

[demo dutch]

Hey I'm all for working mothers, strong independent women, etc etc., but let's get real here......

Palin is a mother of five, of which one child is a 4 months yr old with down syndrome, AND now the GOP annoucement that she also has a 17yr child who's 5 months pregnant, who's surely going thru a tremendous difficult time as she getting ready to become a teenage mother and has decided to wed the young boy who her got her pregnant. And that doesn't even incl the daily issues of the other young children.

Seriously why doesn't Sarah Palin, given her family situation, ask herself (or anyone else should ask her for that matter) if she really thinks that this is where she should be right now, ......... running for vice president of the United States of America

Is it really Pro-Family values or just Pro-Palin AND another case of really bad judgment by Sarah Palin

Frankly I think she'll resign (forced by the campaign of course) claiming that she needs more time with her family!

[qwlauren35]

1. Pro-Palin

That's a no-brainer.


Edwards picked running for the presidency over staying home with his wife while she fought cancer. He was being "Pro-Edwards".

When the scorpion of political ambition truly bites, I think some aspect of selflessness dies inside.

[katandmoon]

13. But Elizabeth Edwards was still a fully functioning adult, capable of taking care of herself

At that point (and long may she be able to). And she urged John Edwards to run for president again.

OTOH, Trig is a helpless infant in urgent need of nurturing, and Bristol is a teenager now nationally known for being knocked up.

I don't think it's an apt comparison.

And I'm no fan of Edwards, either.

[DontTreadOnMe]

2. No!

Republican's are rich, and they can afford to hire maids to take care of the children.
What's the matter with you? people with careers don't have time for the small stuff.

[msallied]

3. It's different when a mother goes back to work to earn a paycheck

and help support the family together with her husband. I'm sorry, but when you make the choice to be a mother, you DO have to make certain sacrifices. Yes, go back to work Sarah. Run your small, backwater state of half a million. But be Vice President while your family needs you now more than ever? No. There are jobs that demand less of your time.

[Erin Elizabeth]

4. Sigh.

I really REALLY really hate the implication that a woman cannot handle her family and a career, too, no matter what the career is.

When I got pregnant with my daughter, I was teaching high school and another teacher told me "the principal HATES pregnant teachers. Thinks they should just quit and stay home to play house instead of working." That was in the NINETIES. And he wasn't even that old.

That attitude is still alive and well.

That being said, I think Palin is all about Palin. You CAN have a career and a family, just ask the men. They've been doing it for ages. :eyes:

But in this case, I am hoping she withdraws her name from the ticket citing personal reasons, not because she's a working mom but because she's batshit fucking crazy and doesn't need to be anywhere near any national ticket. Period.

[msallied]

6. Yes, for the love of god, have a career

Being second in command in the NATION when you have a special needs baby and a pregnant teenage daughter, however, is NOT the common case. I really wish women who are trigger happy on this topic would really settle the hell down. No one is saying you can't friggen be a school teacher. Yes, it's a busy, important job. But it doesn't require you to gallivant around the damn world, have Secret Service protection, and god-forbid put you in the possible position of being President one day. Jesus.

[Erin Elizabeth]

11. What the fuck are you getting all twisted up about?

Did you even READ the last part of my post?

Goddamn. Calm down.

[msallied]

18. Because I've been reading "I can go back to work whenever I want!" crap all day on this issue. lol

I apologize for jumping down your throat.

[Ilsa]

5. It's her own decision, but I have chosen to be with my kids

at a young age, and one is disabled. It's a hard choice to make, and she will have alot on her plate if she gets what she wants. I wouldn't want it, but I never have, either. If the baby was older and not disabled, maybe it would be easier for her. But she is going to find that she will eed to take time as a parent to deal with issues like Early Intervention Programs, Individual Education Plans at the school, etc for her son. He would qualify in Texas for some intensive assistance in his home environment in making sure he continues to develop appropriately. That family doesn't appear to have the educational background to do it themselves.

[HereSince1628]

7. But yer talking about a woman who travelled for 12 hours after her water broke

This is not the sort of woman who would let a few bad times in the family get away of her taking a shot at learning what a vice president does every day now that she has it in her sights. Besides, she's been so successful mentoring Bristol on how to care for a baby, that Bristol's already doing all the baby-care.

[AtomicKitten]

8. I'd like about 10 questions answered by her first before answering.

Otherwise, I have no information on which to make that judgment.

[Fleshdancer]

9. Sarah Palin has a husband. It should be expected of him to step into this role.

I would expect my husband to help as much as possible with the home life if I were tapped for the VP position. :shrug:

[KoKo]

17. He's supposed to be the Nanny in the VEEP Mansion? A snowmobile champion, Oil Drig Worker and

Commercial fisherman is going to come to DC and live in Dick Cheney's Home...nannying his children while Sarah does missions for McCain? :eyes: He's also going to help that little Down's syndrome baby learn to function...? Or, will the kids be left with a Government paid for Nanny while hubby goes back to what he loves to do and mommy gallivants around the world or maybe acts like Cheney as "policy master" for the Bush 2 Term?

[Fleshdancer]

23. He's not a nanny, he's the father

and I don't care what toys he plays with or what sports he enjoys, he's just as capable as she is of raising kids and taking care of a baby with Down Syndrome. It should be expected of him.

[Arugula Latte]

25. That's what would have been expected of Sarah Palin if the roles were reversed, right?

[Kaylee]

10. Both my husband and I have had to make some sacrifices for the kids

He doesn't work as much overtime as he would like, and I've settled into a lower-paying, more secure job that allows me to have set hours since his job doesn't.

I must admit that I am troubled that Palin would go for such a high job with a son who has Downs Syndrome, a pregnant teen daughter that definitely needs her mother, 3 other kids that are young minors, and a husband that didn't even step up to be there for the kids when she became governor.

[LisaL]

12. From what I've read about her,she doesn't think

the children, however many, should be preventing the woman from doing her job. Hell, she went to work a few days after she had Trig.

[Kdillard]

14. It is all Pro-Palin and has always been in every action she has taken.

She doesn't consult with or consider the welfare of her family in any decision she makes in fact she said her husband would stop working without even consulting him about whether he even wanted to do that in the first place and of course it turned into an embarassing situation. I don't know of any working woman who would handle things the way she has at the moment.

[Avalux]

15. I am troubled that both McCain and Palin would thrust a 17 y/o into the public spotlight.

I really don't understand how Palin could accept the VP nomination knowing her daughter was pregnant and knowing she would be plastered all over the news, etc. Selfish woman.

This is a completely separate issue from being a working mother, raising a family, etc.

[KoKo]

19. Good point you make. She makes her daughter the object of speculation

for her own political gains. She uses baby Trig to show off how she and her hubby "made the decision" to keep their baby they knew would have special need. They make their daughter the subject of speculation, abandon their baby with "special needs" at four months old so that Sarah can be the beacon of light to the RW Fundie Christians and save John McCain's butt?

How selfish can one be? She brought those children into the world. Her daughter will need her help being a teen mother and baby Trig needs all the help she can get..in these early years and beyond.

[southerncrone]

16. Any truly responsible & reasonable mother would never take on what

Sarah Palin has already taken on. She has certainly bit off more than Superwoman could chew. Now to try to be VP....? This begs the question of her sanity, let alone her other lack of qualifications to be VP.

Don't get me wrong, I have been a feminist since my teens, but there are the factors of common sense & practicality that must be considered. Being a "career" woman & mother are two more-than-full-time jobs. Otherwise, you are neither. I suspect Sarah Palin is NOT a mother. She may be a baby-producing machine, but there is more to being a mother than giving birth.

I read she brought the 7 yr old to work in a car seat the day after giving birth. This is child abuse!
Many daycare facilities have been fined across this nation for leaving kids in car seats for too long a time. This is NO DIFFERENT. It's actually worse. This woman is ambitious to a fault.

The word is: selfish. I bet these kids are screwed up beyond belief. Dad tried the "Mister Mom" bit, but found out he couldn't handle it. So neither of these parents wants to be "fully responsible parents" to the kids they've spit out. It's sickening.

[barack the house]

20. ...

[barack the house]

21. I think mothers can run for careers but it's more a case of irresponsiblity in this case.->

The 2 things can be juggled but clearly she hasn't had the best parenting skills and that translates to responsiblity in general and suitablity for the postion of VP.

[Jade Fox]

22. I think if you have FIVE KIDS......

especially a special needs child, you owe it to those kids to raise them. That boils down to a lot of time--time coming from one or the other parent. Someone needs to be at home a great deal of the time. (I can only imagine what would be said about Palin if she were a Democrat.)

People have no damn business having five kids, IMO.

I think she'll leave too, and then we will get to hear about how is the fault of people like us, who kept pointing out Palin's inappropriateness.

[Tumbulu]

24. InSane McCain and Palin have proven themselves to be just that.

It is child endangerment to be hauling that little baby around like this, and the pregnant daughter needs to not be flying on planes as well as the radiation can damage the fetus. These people are reckless, mean and stupid. Perfect descendants of W.

I only have one child and no way could I take on something beyond the minimum of jobs because I have to be available when she gets sick, etc, and the school needs helpers and cakes and there is a performance in a month and we need to get tights. This is the deal, parents have to take care of their kids! Or don't have them.

[SheilaT]

26. I had the enormous good fortune

to be a stay-at-home mom to my two sons, now 21 and 25.

Among the reasons I stayed at home was that I saw that there was almost no support for a working mom And that has always made me incredibly angry.

I have always realized that I was in a privileged position, and that the majority of women who worked absolutely needed to do so. I wish I could recall the exact statistics, but back when I was an information operator for Ma Bell, I recall that some very large percentage -- and how I wish I could recall the exact number -- of women who were operators were either unmarried or married to men who earned significantly below the median income.

Women have always worked. They have always needed to. My own mother was a nurse. My father was a stock clerk whose earnings would not have kept us in any kind of life. When I was fourteen years old my mother packed up the five children still at home, ages 7-15 (the oldest was already away from home and in the army) and moved us some two thousand miles across the country to get us away from an abusive, alcoholic father. This was in 1962. She was a nurse. In those days, unemployment insurance didn't cover nurses because the assumption was they could find a job anywhere. That was true. She found a job, although the pay was barely enough to pay rent and buy us food. She worked a lot of double shifts. In my sophomore year of highs school (about 18 months after this move) I had a Saturday babysitting job that paid $3.00 per Saturday. When the mom of the family was driving me home I always asked her to stop at a grocery store so that I could buy food for my brothers and sisters. The mom was somewhat bemused by my request, but it simply didn't occur to me that I should do anything with the money besides help out the family.

That's a lengthy and personal digression, but I can come back to the point of what a privilege it is to be able to stay home to raise children. It always seems deceptive or false in some way when someone we perceive as able to stay at home doesn't, such as someone like Sarah Palin. I hate to judge her decisions. None of us ever know what goes into someone's life choices. It's so easy to mock her as a fundamentalist for whom abstinence only education certainly didn't work for her child.

But it's too easy to condemn. I have a sister who is going to be a grandmother twice this year. Once by her 19 year old son whose girlfriend just gave birth about two weeks ago. I don't think they have any plans to marry, and I don't think (sadly) that this is a stable long term relationship. But who knows? My sister's oldest daughter is expecting her first child in December. In this case it looks like a long term stable relationship. and I understand they are planning to get married after the baby arrives. Personally, I think marriage first, then a baby, what hey, I'm sixty years old now and so what do I know?

My essential point is that we shouldn't be judging, shouldn't be condemning. We, as Democrats, should be above all this.