What a perfect day to have been stuck in the car, doing errands, giving Andrew practice driving on the interstate. The radio was on all morning (incidentally driving Maggie nuts).
Palin sounds perfect in so many ways. When I heard Fred Thompson thought McCain made a great choice, that was thrilling. What I heard her say in this morning's speech was encouraging. What I heard from the talk-show callers was exciting.
But I still can't get over the fact that she has a little baby who should still be nursing and not even on solids yet, and the mommy is out there with a career. When I heard "mom of five" I figured this was a woman who had to be organized, who wouldn't put up with guff, and who would know that disagreements can't always be solved by just talking nice. But we're not talking "mom of five" where the youngest is age 10 or 15. We're talking about somebody who should be nursing and changing diapers. Annnnd we're talking about the mom of a little boy with Down Syndrome, a little boy who will need his mom's attention and help and love longer and more intensely than most kids.
No matter how perfect a choice Palin is for McCain and for the country, I can't help but wonder whether her son will be sacrificed "for the greater good." And all us conservatives are thrilled about it.
Talk about mixed feelings!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I thought about that angle, too, and I wondered.
ReplyDeleteI hope it means we'll have a bitty baby in Veep's office on a daily basis. And maybe Daddy will be a stay-at-home daddy? True, it's not an ideal situation for a little baby. :-(
I missed her remarks - my live stream wouldn't load!
Given that governors and VPs often work where they live, campaigning is done on buses and airplanes, maybe baby will be along. Actresses do it, working 14 hours a day, with a nanny there to watch the baby while they do scenes, and then running to their trailer to nurse and be with baby whenever they can. When I was a LLL Leader in California, I was actually impressed.
ReplyDeleteWith a larger family, maybe there can be support there, as well.
Or maybe the Downs Syndrome of the baby precluded nursing. Sometimes the medical treatments and complications that happen at first means that while milk can be provided for a while (supply depletes with just pumping after a while), the latch doesn't come and other means of feeding are needed, not that non-nursing babies don't need mommy, too.
The same thoughts occurred to me, too...but hopefully, we'll be surprised!!
Eek, Susan, I didn't even think of that. Having a little guy with DS myself and hearing her talk about how aborting was never an option caught my attention so much, I didn't even think about how her new busyness might affect her little guy. I'll have to pay more attention to this. I think it would be neat to see her making her public appearances with a baby in a sling.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, Gary keeps reminding me that Mrs Palin will be no less available to her son as a candidate on the trail, nor as VP, than she is available to him now as governor. So her busyness level probably isn't going to be changing.
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling not so much with the incidents of this one particular case, but the whole idea that even conservatives are showing that they don't value motherhood as much as they espouse. I expect the liberals to see no value in motherhood, in sacrificing for the child's benefit. The liberals are all about self-fulfillment. It's more disappointing when I see the conservatives doing the same thing. (And please understand I'm not throwing stones at others. I too am delighted with the nomination.)
Like you said, I hope her son will be with her a lot on the campaign trail. I'm hoping that she can incorporate her political career with the family responsibilities, rather than reneging on either one too much.