Rosen has nothing to apologize for. Period. Neither do we.
Let me tell you a short story: A couple of months ago, a relative of my wife’s decided to take umbrage with a post I made on my private page about grandparents who think they know more about their autistic grandchildren then the parents. I belong to a FB group of mothers with autistic children (they let me in because i’m a stay-at-home) and they savaged the poor girl. She tried to defend herself by claiming that she works with special needs children so she knows what it’s like. This sent the women of my group in paroxysms of both laughter and anger. Comparing raising a special needs child with working with one is demeaning and insulting. When you work with one, you get to go home at night. You can quit and get another job. When it’s your own child, you never get to leave, you never get to take a week or two off. It’s your responsibility 24/7 forever.
That’s the difference between Anne Romney and the rest of us stay-at-home parents. She has nannies and maids to help out. If she chooses not to change a diaper for a year, then she doesn’t have to. If she wants a week off to go to Aruba, she can just pack up and leave. She doesn’t have to put the baby to sleep or get up in the middle of the night unless she wants to. My son woke up at 1AM last night and wouldn’t go back to sleep until 4:30. Guess who had to deal with that? Me and my wife (our son sleeps in our bed because he won’t sleep anywhere else). We couldn’t ring the nanny to take a screaming child to another part of the house so we could get some sleep.
Maybe Anne was mother of the year. Maybe she changed every diaper and wiped every snotty nose and cleaned every boo-boo. I don’t know, although I’m given to understand she has a small army of hired help. What I do know is that she didn’t have to do it and that makes all the difference in the world. It’s not “work” if you can fob it off when you get tired of it.
Don’t apologize for telling the truth.
Amen! FINALLY, someone has called this what it is. A fraud! Thanks.
Thank you! you are so right – maybe she was there a lot of the time, maybe not, but….!
I wrote my column this week on exactly the same subject. Mind if I link your blog to my column? This is a nice perspective from someone really in the trenches.
Have at it!
I agree 100%. I never thought Hilary Rosen should have apologized for saying what she did, she was only telling it like it is.
She is a fraud — especially given the fact that she is now bragging about making it a political issue in order to make her weak husband look good …. how pathetic and desperate they are
yes but the Romneys gave $100 million to their children tax free with zilch in their budget for working poor mothers and their children…imagine that
Thanks for the article. My sentiments exactly. Ann Romney can represent working-class single mothers everywhere if and only if she has ever had her paycheck docked for taking a sick child to the doctor after sick days are used up. And knows that the rent will be late because of the docked paycheck.
There should be no apologies whatsoever, and somebody needs to take Wolf Blitzer to school for treating Hilary Rosen so abominably on national tv. He acted like an adult scolding a child and made her apologize “so, face the camera and talk to Mrs. Romney as if she were here now. Apologize to her.” And then he made her do it again. I wish I could bitch-slap that a-hole!!
The problem isn’t that stay-at-home mothers don’t work, but that they don’t recognise working mothers are doing TWO jobs…one paid and one at home. The only problem I see with Rosen’s comment is that she said “Hasn’t worked a day in her life.” when she should have said “Has never been employed outside the house.”
The Romney’s will ride this circus as long as we let them. Rosen has absolutely nothing to apologize for. Please stop giving the Romney more distraction politics and make him get to his real vision for making the USA as it used to be. I think he has no answers……just running off at the head. He’s a joke!
Actually, it’s incorrect to speak of Romney as a SAHM in the present tense. Her youngest “child” is 31 so it’s been several years since she’s been actively involved in child rearing.
Hillary Rosen’s gaffe isn’t the gift conservatives think it is. The more scrutiny Ann Romney gets the more it will reveal how filthy stinking rich the Romneys are and how unlike the rest of us.
Yeah, I agree. I think Hilary Rosen made a tactical mistake there as did president Obama. Rosen should have retorted exactly what you’re saying (because it’s the simple, honest-to-god truth) and Obama should have kept out of it.
I worked with special needs children for years and now work with special needs adults. I was always aware that I had the easier job because is get to go home at 4 o’clock.
So right!! And I wish the media and democrats would say so!!!