I just read a post over at TechCrunch that has me fuming. The Google Smackdown according to Mike Arrington was only brought down upon posties that “shill” themselves out and that we are “pathetic”, because people are freaking out about it. Instead of writing up anything of value, he instead chose to attack stay at home moms and people trying to make ends meet.  If you read all of the comments to this post of his, he has not only turned off people who do paid posts, he has turned off his own readers.  I think your linkbait backfired (or did it since you did drive a lot to yourself?).

Let me start posting the pictures of the kids’ Christmas’s that this effects.  Would you still call them pathetic?  When has people venting become pathetic?  If TechCrunch wasn’t there tomorrow to pay your bills, wouldn’t you be freaking?  I’ll even start by posting pictures of my son (actually there are a whole ton in my flicker account over in the sidebar that you can choose from).  We have over $1,00o in medical bills this year just for him.  Doing some paid posting has allowed me to pay those bills.  I have actually bought some of the products after I posted about them (to answer the question of one of his readers).  Everyone has a story.  Some are better than mine.  Some worse.  None are pathetic.

Mike, come here to Chicago and tell me I’m pathetic to my face.  Quit hiding behind the internet and be a man.  It is a lot easier to be an ass and write something than say it to their face.  I won’t hold my breath for your arrival.

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I know there are a ton of people out there who think a stay at home moms life is simple and easy.  I wish.  Here’s a snapshot of my morning –

First, Bill overslept by a lot (like over an hour) and he has a meeting this morning.  We are in the process of potty training Madison overnight, and she had an accident.  Will also woke up and wanted to fed at that moment.  I have 2 crying kids and a pissed off husband.  It was great.  Here’s everything that had to be done:

1.  Get Bill out the door.

2.  Get Madison naked and throw her in the tub.  I also had to wash her hair.

3.  Rip all the bedding off Madison’s bed and throw it in the washing machine.

4.  Flip my laundry so I can do #4

5.  Load the dishwasher, because I am almost out of nipples.

6.  Make Will his bottle

7.  Make Will his cereal

8.  Check on Madison to make sure she is still doing okay.

9.   Grab Will and feed him.

That was about 15 minutes of my life this morning.  Why is this job unpaid again?

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Yes, I am a stay at home mom.  My husband and I chose this for many reasons.  First, daycare is expensive here in Chicago.  I would be working to pay for daycare.  Second, my salary would put us in the next tax bracket.  We would be taxed more if I went to work.  We also decided that we wanted one of us raising our kids — not a daycare worker.  Yes, I have a college degree.  However, I will still have that degree once my kids are in school.  I do not look down upon people who put their kids in daycare.  However, I don’t get what gives others the right to do it to me.  What really gets me going is that the feminist movement considers my choice dangerous.  Why?

According to Gretchen Ritter, stay at home moms are “dangerous subversives and a plague on society.”  Who is Gretchen Ritter?  She is the director of  the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas and as associate professor of government and women’s studies.  She also states that staying at home with my children denies their father a chance to be involved, I lose a chance to contribute as a professional and community activist, it teaches my children that the world is divided by gender, it stresses children out, it victimizes women who work, and it makes it tougher for families with two working parents because schools and libraries will neglect their needs. “Full-time mothering is … bad for children,” she insists.  “… the stay-at-home mother movement is bad for society,” she states.

Of course, she has no evidence to support these claims.  The part that really kills me is that she is college professor who is teaching this to young women.  Society already puts enough pressure on us, why must we do it to one another?  I would love to know how my choice denies my kid’s father to be in their life?  One of us has to work.  If we both worked, then neither one of us would be there.  I don’t understand how I can’t be a community activist.  If you think about it, I would have more time for activities like this.  As for the world being divided by gender, unfortunately, it is.  My question back to her is what about daycare workers?  They are primarily female.  I would think daycare would stress out your children more than keeping them at home.  Lastly, why is my problem that 2 working parent families can’t get free daycare from the schools and library?  That’s what I read into that last statement.

I guess I don’t get how being a stay at home mom makes me any less of a women or any less of a feminist.  I thought the feminist movement was about choices.  Well, what happened to my choice to stay at home?

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