Comnplaints to Not File About Palin

[ricevermicelli]

Up front: I think that Sarah Palin's vice presidential nomination is an insult to voters, that she is vastly unprepared to take a role in national politics, and possibly that McCain should be taken out back and horsewhipped for the way he is using someone who might, but for this election cycle, one day have matured into a real politician.

However, I heard, today, a question about where her baby is. Is she dragging that poor, special needs child on the campaign trail? Because that would be unforgivably traumatizing to the poor wee babe.

Eyes on the ball, people. When we file the wrong complaints, we miss the opportunity to make the points that matter. Also, we look like jackasses.

This kind of faux-concern for children upsets me greatly, because if you think about it just a little, what it comes down to is the statement that women with children ought to stay quietly at home, lest they traumatize their infants by taking them anywhere, or by failing to be present at every milestone and every diaper change.

Children do need care and continuity. No question. But let's define continuity. Do you think a child who can't focus on anything more than 12 inches from his own head can tell the difference between one hotel room and the next? Trig Palin is probably getting a bit beyond that, but I can't imagine he's progressed all that much beyond rolling over. Maybe - and I would be very surprised by this - he's crawling. If he's with his parents, great! If he's at home with another caregiver, fine! Either way - if he's fed, sheltered, changed at appropriate intervals, and cuddled frequently, all of his needs are being well met. The closest thing he will experience to trauma from all that is when, quel horreur, the big people insist on putting him in clean shirts rather than allowing him to appear in front of cameras in spit-up infused ones.

It is possible for parents to do more than one thing at a time, to be mothers and fathers as well as all the other things they are. There is some juggling involved. Parenting doesn't make those other jobs easier. But we should not demand that people abdicate from involvement in their societies while they have and raise children. Such absence is bad for parents, bad for kids, and bad for our culture.

Comments

[queen-of-wands.livejournal.com]

I heard a snippet on NPR the other night of someone calling for Palin to back down from candidacy and saying she should excuse herself on the grounds she has a baby to take care of. It made me want to scream. She should excuse herself on the grounds that she would make a lousy VP. Motherhood is not the reason she is unfit for the job.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Yes. She had the baby when she accepted the nomination. She had the baby when the nomination was offered. The baby was not an unknown, is not some unexpected thing that only since the RNC cropped up and demanded her attention.

As a working mother, I wish she was doing a better job of representing the capabilities of working mothers to the general public.

[zuleikhajami.livejournal.com]

She was back on the job three days after giving birth, which is one of the few things I find inspirational about her. I think she's doing a fine job of representing working mothers. She's just not doing a fine job of representing herself as an intelligent, competent politician!

[kitmf.livejournal.com]

A baby's point of view is quite different from that of an adult. This recent weekend I went up to visit my daughter and we went to the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington. Three adults, a three and a half month baby, a stroller and a collection of books to be signed. My daughter had plans worthy of a general and the three of us stood in lines properly positioned to get the books she wanted signed. Neil Gaiman was there. About an hour before he was due to start signing I got in line with the baby. After a while my son in law took my place. As the afternoon wore on, the person standing in that line with the baby changed from time to time. After three hours, she and her parents got to the front of the line and got three books signed - one per person. Yes, he signed one for Sophie. She's a person, and of the four of us only she did the whole time. But from Sophie's point of view the day was delightful. She was held nearly all day. She was fed as often as she wanted. Her diaper was changed regularly. She was outside, which she prefers. She obviously felt that all those thousands of people had assembled on the Mall for the express purpose of cooing at her, and she smiled delightedly at all of them. She loves people. She loves new things to look at. She did disapprove of the rain, but her father had an umbrella and she wasn't getting wet. She merely was being cooed at less, as the people around her were ducking under their own umbrellas.

At the end of the day the rest of us were exhausted. Sophie was ready to go do it again. Sophie is some younger than Trig, but he is likely to be at a similar stage of development given the Downs Syndrome. Lots to look at, plenty of people to smile at, toys offered for him to grab, regular food and diaper changes - he's doing just fine. Security for someone that new lies in people, not places.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

And yay for Sophie getting her book signed! Neil Gaiman does the best inscriptions.

IMNSHO

[beth_leonard]

In my not so humble opinion, the only reason Palin is on the ticket is because she gets the McCain ticket free press. Given how behind he is in the money game, he needs all the free press he can get. Since her nomination Obama has been nearly wiped off of the front page, where he used to preside daily.

I am very torn about this election. I'm a registered Republican, and McCain is the national politician whose views most closely mirror my own (63% I think in one of those "who are you most like?" meme's from the primary days), however, I don't think Palin is set to lead the country yet, her views either aren't as well defined or don't mirror mine, and McCain is rather old. If Palin stays VP for 4 years, I'd rather have McCain than Obama, although I agree with Obama more on net neutrality. If McCain dies before November and I have a Palin vs. Obama ticket, I think I'd go for Obama.

This will be the first time in 8 years that I've voted for a major-party candidate in the presidential elections. We're at least getting the best of two decent choices, rather than the least of two evils.

And I think demonstrating how to pull off the working mom thing is great for the country. Both Jon and I had stay-at-home moms, so we don't have good models for it, but many of my friends were raised with constant daycare and turned out just fine.

--Beth

Re: IMNSHO

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I think demonstrating how to pull off the working mom thing is great for the country.

I just wish she was giving a better demonstration of the working bit. I am still flinching over the Couric interview, which convinced me that if it's three a.m. and a phone is ringing in the White House, I would rather that Sarah Palin did *not* answer it.

Re: IMNSHO

[gosling.livejournal.com]

I believe McCain has had two rounds of skin cancer too. While these things are exceedingly hard to predict, I am beginning to suspect that within a year or two the president may well either be Palin or Obama.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That is such an obnoxious example of concern trolling! I'm glad I haven't seen it, or I'd have to kill someone.

[thenotoriousphd.livejournal.com]

I agree. Unless we have reason to believe that the baby isn't being well cared for, which I don't think is the case here, then speculating on where he is and criticizing Palin for not toting him everywhere is inappropriate. I have a lot of issues with her, but this ain't one of them.

[dreams-of-wings.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

very well said!