I’ve never cared much for Dr. Laura, but when I saw her book at Costco the other week, it made my blood boil. I have not read the book, just a lot of articles and reviews about it, but basically, she believes women who work while their children are young are not good mothers…that they’ve made selfish choices. She says her ‘heart hurts for working mothers’, which is a really nice way of saying she feels sorry for us. I take personal offense to this. And I really hate even getting into this subject because I have nothing but the largest amount of respect for SAHMs and I hate the entire stay-at-home/working mom debate. I really do. It’s unwinnable and does NOT NEED to be won by either side. It’s not a contest. All moms work hard, all of us. We all love our kids. A lot of moms work because they have no other choice. She claims it’s a choice. My guess is that her husband did well and foregoing her salary did not drastically alter their lifestyle. Also, she did work! She just worked on radio spewing her quackery from 11pm to 2am in the morning. Not all Moms have jobs that offer that sort of flexibility. (I just wonder how she functioned with her kids during the day after being up all night?!)
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April 30th, 2009 at 8:09 am
I agree wholeheartedly. Like you, I have not read Dr. Laura’s book, so I’m not going to judge it. But generally, you’re 100% right: stay at home moms can be praised without insulting moms who work.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:40 am
HipMom: You inspired us to look at the same issue, east coast style, for the Moms & Dads blog at SunSentinel.com. We're linking back to you, of course…
http://blogs.trb.com/features/family/parenting/blog/2009/04/praising_stayathome_moms_or_in.html
April 30th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Raf- Thank you for the shout out on SunSentinel.com. I left a comment. This is an emotional topic for lots of women…I wish we could all just work it out, not judge and move forward…
April 30th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Thanks, Andrea. Look forward to following your blog: keep tweeting!
May 1st, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Dr. Laura drives me insane but even worse are that people even give her a soapbox to stand on. Why do we even allow her to enter our consciousness? Of course she’s entitled to her opinions but let’s get with the real world. Everyone makes choices that fit their life and she has no right to judge anyone else.
thanks for the great post.
May 1st, 2009 at 3:41 pm
You’re right, Tracy. I think we’re playing into her hands…I wonder what portion of her motivation for writing the book is to communicate what she really believes and what portion is just about getting herself some attention. Her popularity seems like its waned over the past few years. Controversy is always a great way to get yourself back into the spotlight.