Wednesday, July 16, 2008

You know, as much as Hillary annoyed me when her husband was running for President (cookies, anyone?), I think Michelle Obama is worse. I’ve been trying to find the sound clip or transcript of a speech she gave the other day that I heard on talk radio - so far no success. But the gist of it was that men are pigs and women rule the world.

I’m amazed that she’s married at all with her attitude about men. I can’t help thinking that Barack must be a complete doormat in their house.

And why does she have children if they’re such a hardship? Anytime I hear her talk about her children she’s whining about how hard it is to be a parent. I can’t think of a single instance where she talked about the joy she finds in her girls (or her husband, for that matter).

She’s being tagged as bitter for good reason. She’s a whining, bitter woman. I don’t want a whining, bitter woman in the White House.

“I wake up every morning wondering how on earth I am going to pull off that next minor miracle to get through the day. I know that everybody in this room is going through this. That is the dilemma women face today. Every woman that I know, regardless of race, education, income, background, political affiliation, is struggling to keep her head above water.

We try to convince ourselves that somehow doing it all is a badge of honor, but for many of us it is a necessity and we have to be very careful not to lose ourselves in the process. More often than not, we as women, are the primary caretakers in our households, scheduling babysitters, planning play dates, keeping up with regular doctor’s appointments; this was my week last week, supervising homework, handing our discipline. Usually we are the ones in charge of keeping the household together. I know you men, I know that you guys try to do your part, but the reality is that we’re doing it, right? (laughter and applause) Laundry, cleaning, cooking, shopping, home repairs. You know Barack has my back, he’s right there with me, feels my pain, and all that. (laughter)

And, for those of us who work outside of the home as well, we have the additional challenge of coordinating these things with our job responsibilities. How many of us have had to be the ones, when a child gets sick, who is the one who stays home? Or, when a toilet overflows? This was a couple of months ago. I was scrambling around to reschedule being at a 9 o’clock meeting and Barack, love him to death, put on his clothes and he left! (laughter)

--Link

I love the disrespect shown to her husband in that last line.

There are some days when I get overwhelmed by the overload of work, Beau, Jesse, trying to run a small business, serving in our church, etc. But most of the time the overload is my own fault - I’m over-committed. The truth is that no one can “do it all” - sometimes we have to sacrifice what we want to do for the things that are more important. I do not believe that men (generally) put themselves ahead of their families at all. In most cases, I believe that what men do is driven by the need to take care of their families - so they work long hours because they think they need to in order to do well at work in order to keep their job so that the paycheck keeps coming and then maybe they’ll get that promotion, which means more money for the family, which makes his family that little bit more secure and maybe they’ll be able to take that vacation to Disney World that the kids keep begging for and his wife will be able to buy those shoes that she mentioned that she saw the other day ... or renovate the kitchen ... or buy that new car ... etc. And then they come home and pitch in with the kids and help clean the dishes and take out the trash and fix that broken whatever.

Sure, not all men are as involved at home. But this generation of men is way more involved than the generation before. Being the breadwinner is hard. I can attest to that - I get home from a day at the office after battling traffic for an hour (or more) and it’s hard to keep up the energy to deal with a toddler and help with dinner. I want to curl up in my recliner and chill - decompress. If I feel that way, then I know that Dad’s the world over feel that way, too. But I’m willing to bet that most Dads do help with dinner and playing with the kids and taking out the trash and fixing whatever needs fixing. Cut Dad some slack, Michelle.

[via Ith]