Some of it sounds oddly familiar.
Aug
31
2008
31
2008
Steve Skojec
Armchair Commentary, Free of Charge
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Planned books:
- Great Heresies by Hilaire Belloc
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The January Dancer by Michael Flynn
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This is really a comment for the thinking out loud Sarah Palin announcement - but my computer keeps freezing up on that page. I’m wondering, Steve, if you’ve ever breastfed because you made the prediction that Sarah wouldn’t for long. i’m a working mother of 6 kids and I have breastfed all at least 12 months, one until she was 2.5 years old. That is something not all stay-at-home moms can say. You’d be amazed at how creative you can get for your kids if you have to. I pumped when I was the only pharmacist on duty at Wal-mart and I would pump in the fitting room and take prescriptions over the phone from inpatient physicians right there in the fitting room. She’s a very capable woman, I’m sure she can figure out how to breastfeed and work - she’s been doing it so far - I’ve even seen pictures of her with the baby in a sling on the job.
As for the comment from the man who was worried about her being “knocked up” and VP or president - I say look at what she accomplished as Governor of AK - while she was “knocked up”. She gave a talk in TX after her water broke and then brought her baby to the office 3 days after birth. Pregnancy is not a disability - I worked through all my pregnancies and even kick-boxed the day before my last one was born. Maybe you are not used to what a professional woman married to a blue-collared man is used to and capable of accomplishing for her family.
Jodi,
Obviously, I’ve never breastfed personally, but my mom breastfed all five of my siblings and me and my wife does the same with our kids.
My wife had to go back to work when our middle child, Sophia, was only 3 months old. She found herself, even trying to pump, unable to continue producing adequate milk by the time Sophia was 6 months old. And my wife wasn’t working the sort of job that Mrs. Palin will be, where the hours are around the clock and you’re always on call.
My wife hiked mountains in the desert at 8.5 months pregnant on her first pregnancy and continues, while pregnant with her fourth, to homeschool our oldest while managing two toddlers and all the regular affairs of the house. I don’t think pregnancy is a “disability”, but it is a challenging state of affairs in many cases, and regardless of the fact that women CAN often balance babies and careers, the question remains (given the option, rather than the necessity) whether they SHOULD.
Being a mom, as you no doubt know, is a full-time job. If you’ve got another full-time job too, then you really can’t commit everything you’ve got to being a mother. In my opinion, that’s not optimal, and isn’t what God intended for families. Sometimes, we don’t have any choice, but to actively pursue that out of political ambition is entirely different than to do what you have to to pay the bills.
If being a full-time mother is what God intended for families, why is it I am trouble thinking of a single canonized saint who was strictly a full-time mother? I’ve heard of a tradition that even the Blessed Mother helped support the Holy Family by weaving. Blessed Maria Taglia did similar work while raising a family of 7 children, taking care of elderly parents and counseling clergy and townpeople alike. St. Therese of Liseux’s mother had a lace-making business and had a wet nurse for St. Therese. St. Therese didn’t even live with the family when she was an infant. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton ran a school and founded a congregation (hardly part-time endeavors) while she cared for her young family. My opinion is that the Cult of Domesticity that popped up after the Industrial Revolution influences us to think that women should be at home 100%. Proverbs mentions the ideal wife as someone who supports her family materially. Even in modern times, we have the example of St. Gianna with 3 young kids she was an active physician - I don’t think she was practicing medicine because her husband was unable to support the family.
Jodi,
Most of the Saints you mentioned were working right out of their home. Yes, of course there are exceptions to this, but I truly feel that the best place for a mom with kids under the age of 18 is at home if at all possible. Many women who work outside the home do it because they have to not because they have chosen to do so.
I don’t know much about Feminists For Life, but I know that she is of the mind that “a woman can do any job she chooses”. She is a feminist albeit one that is pro-life. I wonder what her answer would be if she was asked, “Do you think a woman should be allowed to be a Catholic Priest?” Ummm…I’m not sure.
Also, for some reason many people think that she is Catholic. She was baptized Catholic , but is now a Protestant who although she is pro-life is not against using artificial birth control.
I’m not a person who is out to slam her, I just don’t think that a woman should be VP.
Anyways…I’m rambling. I don’t know why I am letting this get to me so much, but for some reason it irritates me more then it probably should. It also bothers me for some reason that so many Trad Catholic Home school moms have so quickly jumped on the Sarah Palin bandwagon. It really surprises me.
JMJ,
A Conservative Trad Home Schooling Mom
Thanks, Laura. I think you make an important point - work used to be a primarily domestic enterprise in the pre-industrialization days, and most families, as I understand it, worked together in and around their home, shop and/or farm.
My wife does Real Estate work part-time. Most of the work can be done from her computer or phone during homeschool hours, when the kids are busy. If we didn’t need the income, she might do it anyway, just to give herself an intellectual challenge and some extra cash, and I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
I do have a problem with families in which the husband can support the family just fine and the wife is putting the kids in daycare to resume her career as soon as possible after birth. To be honest, while it isn’t as bad, I’m not even a fan of stay-at-home dads as a matter of choice, rather than necessity. (Some women have the skills to make more money than their husbands, and there are times when this has to happen.)
Mothers are the ones God intended to be with their own children, educating and forming them and teaching them to love Him. They are more naturally inclined to be nurturing, they are the only ones who can give a child food from their own substance, and children by nature gravitate to the kindness and gentleness of their mother.
When all of this gets suppressed in favor of some less important but still-noble goal like a career in politics, yes, it gives me pause about the priorities of the person making the choice.