Thursday's thought for the day....

EVERY WOMAN IS A WORKING WOMAN

Though I'm not looking to get into political discussions on my blog, there was a comment I heard in the media yesterday which caught my attention and I just had to comment.

While appearing on CNN Wednesday, Democratic Strategist Hilary Rosen stated in a discussion with regard to the difficulties of women in today's economy, "Guess what, (Romney's) wife has actually never worked a day in her life."

Wow.   Seriously?

A stay-at-home mother, who raises five children and creates a home environment, while supporting the efforts of her husband to earn a living for the entire family doesn't work?

But if she had paid another woman to come into her house and do the same exact thing, then that person would be considered a "working woman".  Because she was paid.

I thought we had come so far from that kind of attitude.  Especially from other women.

In my own situation, I've done both.  I spent the first eighteen years of my married life raising three daughters, creating a home life, and offering all the support I could to my husband for the challenging job he had. The Englishman and I both firmly believed in the value of my being with our girls. Financially, we were in a position to do so.  But in order to maintain that financial position, the Englishman needed to be able to give his all to his career.  So I "worked" to raise our children and all that entailed.  I created a peaceful environment in the house, down to the colors I chose for the paint on the walls, to try and give him a warm environment in which to relax on weekend.  I handled the household finances and all the work done by contractors, landscapers, etc.  The only time I called him at work was for an emergency.

When our oldest daughter entered college, I went back to my "career" as an elementary school teacher.  The Englishman had started a new career in which he worked from home.  So now he cooked the meals, dealt with teenagers who arrived home from school before I did and handled a larger part of running the house.

I posted on Facebook this morning about watching an interview with Ann Romney concerning this issue.  That post elicited this comment from the Englishman:

"I could not have had the successful career that I did without the tremendous help of my friend, wife and mother of my children - and that is a lot of work I can tell you."


My response to him?  "Thank you, my soul mate.  We were, and are, a team."


We began our married life as equals, working in partnership to create a family and a life together.  We didn't measure who did what - who made the most money, who woke up the most during the night with either kids or dogs, who cooked the most meals or did the wash.  We have always been in it together.


We both work, whether in the home or outside it.  Full time.  Three hundred and sixty five days a year.  We've made the choices we have because they are right for us. And thirty three years later those choices are still working.  


And the value of one's work cannot always be measured in dollars and cents.