Politics | 09/02/2008 10:40 am

Moms: Can Palin Pull Off Motherhood and Vice Presidency?

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Sarah Palin holding infant Trig/AP

When John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, many hailed his choice as brilliant – a young, working hockey mom who wasn’t afraid to take on the Establishment.

But The New York Times reports that some mothers across the country are doubting whether the Alaska governor — who has five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and a pregnant teenage daughter — has enough time to take care of her family and be the country’s vice president.

Plus, some say they are worried that any campaign stumbles might hold consequences for other working mothers.

"There’s nervousness among working moms of both parties that how she does in this race will reflect on the overall ability of working moms," Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine and a mother of two, told the Times.

Social conservatives, usually staunch advocates for stay-at-home motherhood, are mostly defending her, while some others, including some working mothers, worry that she is taking on too much.

"How is this really going to work?" said Karen Shopoff Rooff, an independent voter, personal trainer and mother of two in Austin, TX. "I don’t care whether she’s the mother or the father; it’s a lot to handle."

But Lori Viars, a mother of two and evangelical Christian from Lebanon, OH, cheered the candidacy as well as the decision of both Palin women to keep their babies. "The whole family is pro-life, and they put that into practice even when it’s not easy," Viars said.

Within minutes of Friday’s announcement that Palin was joining the Republican ticket, administrators of one website, D.C. Urban Moms, said they had received hundreds of postings about Palin and her family stresses, more than on any other political issue this year. Many women, citing their own difficulties with less-demanding jobs, said it would be impossible for Palin to succeed both at motherhood and in the White House.

"You can juggle a BlackBerry and a breast pump in a lot of jobs, but not in the vice presidency," said Christina Henry de Tessan, a mother of two in Portland, OR, who supports Sen. Barack Obama.

Read more about: Barack Obama, Election, John McCain, News, Politics, Sarah Palin, White House

64 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Kelly, And I think these conversations have gotten us so far off the track of the most important issues that are going to affect our country…the environment, the war, the secrecy that the McCain people are taking right from the playbook of the Bush/Cheney people. The question that everybody needs to be asking themselves:”Are you better off that you were 8 years ago?” Inflation, alternative fuels R&D, and on , and on, and on. Palin has issues that need to be discussed that have to do with her ablilty to administrate and also her ties with Big Oil Lobbies. She has a husband who, apparently is a good partner when it comes to parenting. I hardly see that as an issue at all, considering that Biden did it ALL BY HIMSELF after his wife and baby were killed. He managed to commute from Deleware to DC every day so he could parent his 2 little boys. It can be done, especiially with a nanny. So, instead of all this going on and on about these subjects, I think we need to focus on issues and readiness, and impulsive decision making. And, the other question is: As an evangelistic extreme right wing christian, is this nation prepared to deal with the intermingling of church/state, and how does Palin specifically think about the Constitution in this regards? As for me, I am delving back into the writings of Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and Paine to read what their thoughts were and why they thought it so important to separate the two.

By Diana T on 09/03/2008 2:36 pm

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Amen Diane. Something I just thought of today though. It would be a sneaky and brilliant ploy with a ton of risk. But follow me here I may sound like I’m rambling. BUT Obama is such a media darling. He is. No getting around it. The media absolutely loves him. And I don’t mean that they agree with him or want him to be the president. I mean he is a “news maker”. A “great story”. He’s interesting and his wife is interesting. They are beautiful. Their children are beautiful. They really eat up the news time. So… now follow me here’s where I might be getting weird LOL… but the appointment of Palin has literally taken ALL the focus off of the Obama/Biden team for the last few days. She is incendiary. Could that have been planned to some extent? I could just see the media types on McCain’s team (and he has a lot of them) sitting around saying “we would be in the news 24/7 no one would be talking about anything else”. Let them hate her and then let her woo them. I dunno… do I sound like I’m one step away from a box on the sidewalk talking to my blanket here?

By Chrome Toe on 09/03/2008 4:58 pm

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Yes, Kelly, You got it. Diversion. Out of sight out of mind. The secretive presidency of the Bush/Cheney continued to the successor. The arresting of demonstrators at the Republican convention, which I might add, the vandals should be arrested, damn them. But, not the 3 journalism majors from here at UofKy. that were up there covering the convention. Now, the McCain ticket is taking a play right out of the Rove playbook: do not talk or answer questions of the media. Now, how long are we, are you going to put up with that? Rove made a statement yesterday, I will have to search for it again. In this statement he said that the Palin selection was not about issues(he may have used the word policy), but it was about getting elected. And, his team is playing the press like a fiddle by giving them the impression that somehow anything other than handling this with kid gloves is bullying and “smearing”, a favorite word of theirs’. If the tables turn on her with what they find, and they will find something, that is what they are for, the McCain team will call it “smears of the liberal elite media.” Let me tell you what the press is supposed to do, and had they done their job(by their own admission) during the lead-up to Bush’s war, we may have been able to avert that war. The Fourth Estate…have you ever heard of it? Newspaper,press, media, journalism, reporters, they are the fourth estate. They are supposed to be our eye and our ears. They are supposed to ask the hard questions on our behalf. They represent US, and they are supposed to provide the truth in an objective fashion. If they uncover the facts, it is incumbent upon them to tell us. It protects our Democracy. “Were it left to me to decide if we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” —-Thomas Jefferson “Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” —-Thomas Jefferson I have decided that Jefferson was correct. So, I will continue to always fight for the right to know. Knowledge is power.

By Diana T on 09/03/2008 6:06 pm

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The bottom line is that I think all of these questions diverge us from the important point. Is she competent to be a vice president on the world stage? And, my bottom line answer, is no. Nothing to do with breast pumps, high heels or anything else under the sun. No, she is a mediocre choice from my point of view chosen by the Rove team, with more in mind to just get in the office as opposed to working for the best interests of the Constitution and the country. No.

By Diana T on 09/02/2008 5:21 pm

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Thank you, Diana. The question isn’t whether she can with five children, no children, or 50 children. She’s not the right candidate - it has nothing to do with her being a mother.

By Lorraine Bates on 09/02/2008 5:27 pm

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Correct, Lorraine, And the more energy we keep talking off the subject of the country, the less we are accomplishing anything. We can talk until our hair turns blue about who is the best father and how she may have 5 kids, but Obama has 2, and on and on ad nauseum. Frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn. I care about the issues facing us today, right now, and in the future. I care about the anger I feel that the Bush administration flat out lied about the start of his war. I care about all the lives that have been lost and all the money going over there that could have been spent over here, either on health care or infrastructure or something like that. And, I know the way Rove’s mind works that all of these conversations revolving around Palin just feed into what he is trying to accoumplish, and that is to get the minds of the voting public on triviae and off of the debacle that the Republican party has supported for the past 8 years. All I am focusing on right now are the issues, our national situation and moral courage vs. irresponsibility.

By Diana T on 09/02/2008 5:37 pm

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Sarah Palin isn’t running for President, but is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama so that’s saying a lot there. Obama’s elected government experience doesn’t contain any P&L responsibility or anything of the depth and breadth of a governor. HIs attempts last night to say running his election campaign top Palin’s experience is so laughable, it’s embarassing to him! That’s like saying because I’m APPLYING for a job, that makes me more qualified simply in the acting of APPLYING for it. And, putting that aside, his long-running connections with a racist and white separatist type church should have disqualified him a long time ago from any position that wasn’t of the same ilk. Amazing how people overlook a wolf in sheep’s clothing that doesn’t even put on the sheep’s clothing to cover up all these things. Just shows people see what they want to see.

By Leslie W on 09/02/2008 5:46 pm

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I find it somewhat incredible that people decide that people’s religious choices are disqualifying events for the presidency, even though there is a provision in the U.S. Constitution that specifically states that there shall be no religious test for public office. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin was a member of a group seeking to get Alaska to secede from the U.S. That is perhaps a little more pertinent in terms of where her loyalties lie.

By Elizabeth Bennett on 09/03/2008 11:30 am

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I heard a couple of talking heads (females) calling the news anchor to task for asking this questions. Good for them! We don’t ask a man if he can be a father and President. Why should we continue pertpetuating this sexist attitude. In my lawsuit- I was forbidden to hire a very competent woman with 4 kids because she “had too much baggage”. Totally puzzled II asked the V.P.“what baggage” and he said “She’s a mother.” ! !!! We shouldn’t even question how she will handle raising her kids. This is something that is her decision - just as private and personal than the pro-life pro-choice decision . Shame for feeding the sexist monster.

By Kay Sara on 09/02/2008 8:10 pm

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C O ther is a real trend of stay at home Dads when the woman has a good job. More and more successful women have the wifey husband thing going on in their life. I was one, and several other women at work in the executive ranks did as well.

By Kay Sara on 09/02/2008 8:15 pm

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She’ll pull it off just like Angelina Jolie, Madonna, J. Lo, Heidi Klum, or any other modern working mom does it. With a nanny and or daycare. Personally, I feel that woman today want too much. They want to be successful in their careers as well as a successful mother. Truth is, reality is, that you can’t be both. One will always falter whether you must leave work to take a child to the dentist or you are dropping your child off at a daycare or leaving them with the nanny and letting him/her cope with all the responsibilities that go along with motherhood. The role of a mother is the most important job there is and unfortunately in today’s world is not given the credos it deserves and if often taken too lightly on by many woman. When I decided to become a mother, that became my job and like any job I took the attitude that any job worth doing is worth doing well. I was criticized for my decision by many of my women friends. However, I can proudly say that I have two honour students, one is 16, still a virgin, a successful competetive swimmer, with a part-time job. Neither have ever come home drunk or stoned or even experimented. Neither have been in trouble with the law. Both are well loved and respected by their peers. They are good kids and will be functioning, responsible, loving, caring adults of this world. We had dinner together every night,still do, movie night once a week, I volunteered at their schools, we did alot together both one on one and as a family. When I returned to work, I went back part-time. I chose my children over money and prestige and advancement and it was the best decision I ever made, and that decision was made before I even brought them into this world.

By Lise 22 on 09/02/2008 9:15 pm

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Leissa, my 16 year old daughter is just as exemplary as yours, (I can’t believe I’m saying this!) and I held down a demanding full-time job throughout most of her childhood. Please keep in mind that choosing to be a “stay at home mom” does not guarantee good kids. I know plenty of teenagers with “at-home” moms who are a mess. Conversely, one of the best kids I know was raised by a single mom who had no choice but to work full time to support herself and her child. Being a good mother has more than one archetype. It’s a really matter of individual family dynamics dictated by personal circumstances and resources. It looks like you did the right thing by your family, as did I. Let’s congratulate each other!

By Susan B on 09/03/2008 12:18 am

Those of you that say you can’t support her for her political views… I feel is the right way to go. Lots of working Mom’s deal with bigger stuff than this. Remember she’ll have staff to do dinner and clean up. Single parents Mom’s are hero’s to me because they have to do it all with no help often from anyone! I don’t agree with her political views..she scares the hell out of me.

By Eve Fulton on 09/02/2008 9:41 pm

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Susan B, don’t get me wrong. It may sound like I am criticizing mothers who choose to work full-time and I understand that in this world many woman have no choice. Perhaps I should have worded it more along these lines, that women who choose to love the career, money, or position more than the joy of motherhood are making the wrong choice, and furthermore I also realize that not all working women are like this. There are women in this world who do want it all and like I said, the reality is that we can’t have it. I often think that the worst thing that ever happened to the woman’s movement was the woman’s movement. Before that the only expectation on a woman was to marry, be a good wife and a good mother. Now a woman is expected to be a good mother, wife, cook, housekeeper, taxi service, CEO, and a good bread earner. We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Woman are criticized for staying home and criticized for working full-time. I feel that the in-fighting that now exists among women is the direct result of the woman’s movement.

By Lise 22 on 09/03/2008 10:38 am

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The women’s movement initiated a huge change socially and economically, and for some it was a good thing, for others, not so much. I think I understand the point you’re trying to make. But I don’t view it as wanting it all, as much as rescripting the definition of mothering and parenting (and fathering!) a bit. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and remember when all the moms were stay at home moms. For some families, like mine, it worked out pretty well. Everybody’s needs were well met, and the members thrived. But I also remember other families on my block. Men who were weighed down with the sole responsibility of supporting their family who fell to alcohol and domestic abuse. Women who really weren’t suited to marriage, 24/7 mothering and keeping house, but who followed that path because they were expected to. I think it’s good that things have opened up a bit, and that we are more able to redraw the picture of a happy family and customize the roles to better work with the members within it. Some don’t always get it right, as you pointed out. There are selfish and greedy parents out there, no question. But there are also a lot of families who are happier and stronger for the change in traditional roles. People who contribute to their family unit by mixing up the traditional roles with the new. That’s what happened in my marriage, and its working for my daughter, my husband and myself. There’s no longer a single model for the perfect family, but the two constants that must still be the priority are the nurturing of the children and the marriage. As my mom always said to me, “Life’s a balancing act.” As for the in-fighting amongst women, that’s what happens when people think and behave differently from each other. That’s why this site gets so heated up. But I think it’s good to be reminded that your POV isn’t the only one. We should try to be more tolerant of different ways of life and focus on our own families. Have you ever watched the AMC TV series, “Mad Men”? It’s a reminder of how some things have changed for the better since the 60’s.

By Susan B on 09/03/2008 4:35 pm