http://liz.rockonchicago.com/?p=323

Leos last blog post..Mommy Tracks: Part Deux

We never discuss whether a man’s family is at the appropriate age and stage for his bid for office. Maybe we should, but that’s not where Laura goes with this. Instead, she buzzes around politics and family for a bit, before stinging the working mom’s last rattled nerve in the final two paragraphs with a same-old attack on feminism and working women. So, yeah, to me – it rings a bit stale.

If you’re interested, I’ve vented about this media tendency, among other things, in many posts: http://www.mommytracksblog.com/category/the-fretting-feminist/

Leos last blog post..Mommy Tracks: Part Deux

What about stay at home fathers? What about two parents working part time and splitting the domestic work and the childcare? What about reaching out to extended family for support? I grew up with the support of extended family while my mother and father worked full time, and I promise you that it was exactly what my family needed and wanted.

What about *trying* to balance things instead of giving up before even trying and dropping all of the family responsibilities on the woman?

BlogNosh is committed to giving voice to lesser-known bloggers, whether or not they originate from famous personalities. I’m not going to dismiss them out of hand, anyway. Instead of complaining about what is here, why don’t you contribute a post of your own? I’ll happily consider it for the politics channel.

My own post relevant to this topic is: http://liz.rockonchicago.com/?p=267

Lizs last blog post..Decrease page-load time to improve CommentLuv performance

As always, I do love the discussion here, but I must admit I hope our political debating also includes the voices of lesser-known bloggers. Surely the blogosphere caters to some pretty fabulous “armchair” political pundits living at least a little bit outside the mainstream.

Leos last blog post..Mommy Tracks: Part Deux

You must be wholly misinformed about family-based child care to cast these opinions. First of all, Family Child Care is almost exclusively performed in homes where mothers are attempting to stay at home with their own children by bringing in income by caring for a few other children. It is demanding, poorly paid work that introduces state licensing into your home. These professionals are not the “career hungry feministas” you fear. They are mothers who strongly want to spend the day with their children but must bring in income, so are willing to work LONG days with this creative, entreprenurial solution. It is bizarre that you would run them down, regardless of what you think of the parents who use their services.

Overwhelmingly, the families who chose family home care instead of private pre-schools are the working poor or immigrants who attempt to create an extended family network through these providers. Low adult-to-child ratios in family home care also makes it a common choice for the caseworkers of children who are required to be in care because of the risk of abuse and neglect in their parents’ home. Most states require low income parents to secure childcare in order to receive training or to work if they try to seek government support for food, or for medical care that is not offered at low income jobs, or if their level of poverty is defined as neglect by the government. Having one parent stay home during a child’s early years may be ideal for a resourced, skilled, not divorced or widowed parent, but that is not the economic reality of many American families. One of the biggest needs for child care in our country is on military bases, because even our military wages have been outpaced by the economy. This does not make these two-income or single-parent homes “incapable.”

It’s feeble that you only invoke the vision of a “feminista mentality” of parents who see their children as a burden to upward mobility when those parents are a tiny slice of the child care/workforce pie?

Deb on the Rockss last blog post..My Beautiful and Damned Boyfriend’s Birthday