Obama: Just Say No to Stay-at-home Moms
By Selwyn Duke | New American
“And that’s not a choice we want Americans to make.” So said pro-choice president Barack Obama, speaking Friday on women and the economy at Rhode Island College in Providence. And some would say his remark was anything but providential, as the choice he referenced was that of mothers staying at home with their children.
To place Obama’s remark in context, he was advocating increased government pre-school so women could remain in the workforce and said:
In many states, sending your child to daycare costs more than sending them [sic] to a public university…. And too often, parents have no choice but to put their kids in cheaper daycare that maybe doesn’t have the kinds of programming that makes a big difference in a child’s development. And sometimes there may just not be any slots, or the best programs may be too far away. And sometimes, someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result. And that’s not a choice we want Americans to make.
One thing critics might note is that this is a rare allusion to the fact that the intersex pay gap — women earn approximately 77 cents on a man’s dollar — reflects different lifestyle choices the sexes make (as The New American explained here), not the supposed “discrimination” implied in those effective “Equal pay for equal work!” campaign slogans.
But what’s implied by Obama’s last line is far more interesting. Was the apparent diminishment of stay-at-home moms, as Town Hall’sSarah Jean Seman put it, “At best … a slip of the tongue.”
Some would say it was a Freudian slip of the tongue.
And it’s not the first one. Trumpeting sex education at a campaign stop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 2008, Obama said about his daughters, “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
Many critics said this reflected the culture of death. No small number of people support sex education in the schools. But how many of them would, quite reflexively (Obama was off Teleprompter at the time), describe a baby as punishment? And millions today must juggle family and career, but how many would, quite reflexively, use words implying that a woman’s choice to devote herself solely to hearth and home is an undesirable one? This could bring to mind an observation the great philosopher C.S. Lewis once made: It is when we react spontaneously, without time to think, that our true selves emerge.
Of course, the reality is that millions of women love staying at home with their children — and millions of others wish they could. And while Obama mentioned “programming” (interesting word choice) “that makes a difference in a child’s development,” what’s better for such development than having a devoted mother at home? As Seman put it, “[M]any women see it as privilege to be able to leave the workplace to invest in their loved ones, and, through the raising of the next generation, the future of their country.”
Yet in this respect, some may want women to be under-privileged. For example, after left-wing political strategist Hilary Rosen said in 2012 that Ann Romney had “actually never worked a day in her life” (despite raising five sons), Crisis’ Dale O’Leary pointed out that, while the remark caused a firestorm, it’s not at all controversial “in the circles in which she [Rosen] travels” — which included Barack Obama, with whom she frequently met. Supporting this thesis, O’Leary provided Obamaesque quotations from other leftists, writing:
Feminist icon, Simone de Beauvoir told Betty Friedan: “No woman should be authorized to stay at home to raise her children…. Women should not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.”
Feminist Ellen Herman … [cited] “… the family — especially, the western patriarchal, bourgeois, and child-centered, nuclear family — as the most important source of women’s oppression.”
Heidi Hartmann, director of the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research…, wrote: “The crucial elements of patriarchy as we currently experience them are heterosexual marriage, female child rearing and house work….”
… Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed herself on the issue of motherhood: “Motherly love ain’t everything it has been cracked up to be. To some extent it’s a myth that men have created to make women think that they do this job to perfection.”
This anti-stay-at-home motherhood attitude can be traced all the way back to Frederick Engles [sic], Karl Marx’s collaborator, who wrote: “… the first condition for the liberation of the wife is to bring the whole female sex back into public industry.”
If Obama were pressed on this, of course, some could perhaps imagine him saying, if you want your stay-at-home mom, you can keep your stay-at-home mom. And we should want to keep her. For homemakers’ absence is a part of “what’s wrong with the world,” which is not only a phrase but the name of a book in which G.K. Chesterton profoundly expressed the superiority of motherhood over careerism. He wrote that the woman is surrounded “with very young children, who require to be taught not so much anything as everything. Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren’t.” Chesterton then speaks of how the enormity of a stay-at-home mom’s task corresponds to its enormous importance:
To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene…. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”
No doubt. And as has often been said, “The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.” Given this, however, is it surprising that Obama and other leftists want the government rocking the cradle as much as possible?
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14 Comments on “Obama: Just Say No to Stay-at-home Moms”
The man amazes me. He has hidden his agendas well. His actions don’t reflect his “Born Again” pre-election confession. What’s worse is the assembly within his administration that are clearly in contrast to traditional Christian beliefs. Obama continues to sell out those who helped elect him. He has sold out the Black Church, the Christian Church, Israel and the family. His statement of evolving on the same sex issue is telling. Hopefully his daughters don’t make a mistake and get pregnant less he and they become murderers of the unborn.
We the people were sold deceit and lies by this man. His Presidency can’t end soon enough. The mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, is the outgrowth of policies implemented by him and his lapdog Eric Holder, which is a beginning of Christian persecution that is in its infancy. Look at how this man has shielded Eric Holder and his wife, who owns a building that housed an abortion clinic, from being investigated and prosecuted for their actions.
Thanks Mr. President for bringing shame and ridicule on Black Christians. Your work is lower than that of the homosexual preacher from Atlanta, they hypocrite Eddie Long.
The stay at home mom IS the most IMPORTANT job in the world! We are reaping the effects( lack of them) in our society now. Great post again EX, showing the double-speak of President and making me aware of this writer
G K Chesterton. Looking him up I found an interesting quote. ” The Christian ideal has not been tried and found
wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
Mr. Chesterton (further reading) was a Catholic but, the quote is beautiful none the less. Because our FAITH is not wanting of anything and is untried by so many. Thanks again EX, you guys challenge and feed the mind. We need that in these times.
I could say so much about this article, but I choose to focus my energy on the gifts that GOD gave me which are my children. Children need their mother and there is not enough political foolishness that can change that. If you are able to stay home with your children while your husband provided… DO IT and don’t feel the need to explain it to the world. Just know that your children will appreciate it more than you will ever know. Amen
Too all the stay at home MOTHERS, please know that the whole chapter of PROVERBS 31 makes mention of you. You are training princes and princesses of GOD when you are in the WORD. Your worth is PRICELESS per
the WORD of GOD. Which cannot be changed and is true. No man could have inspired it. All true believers applaud you.
POPULATION CONTROL!!! SMH!
I worked in a hospital for 3 years got married and we have two children, since our children I’ve been a stay at home mother. God’s blessing to allow my husband to Provide an received a raise. I’ve learned how to make natural home products and we have been able to have healthier meals. All of the Lord’s doing! God will take care of ALL needs. And 1 more thing being a mother and wife is thee most rewarding “job” ever!!! Humbled in His Love.
I think this is a choice that should be up to the women and her husband if she is married. If she is single it still should be up to the women’s choice as well. The government already has to much say in the way our family’s are being raised. This is just another form of control, and freedom being took away.
I wish I could have stayed home with my children, that quote from G K Chesterton is soooo profoundly true the most honorable and rewarding position a women can have is to be a stay at home Mom. My second child really needed me to be home with her. This prez is really anti family which is at the core anti Christ. Thanks Pastor Lewis we really do need to know and perform our creation role. Lord please help our children
As a stay at home, homeschool mother myself, the task is enormous. Exhausting, unappreciated work oftentimes. Certain men have thought my job to be easy street, while others have pitied me for my load. With six children, I have been often asked if I ‘want’ anymore and encouraged to shut down the ‘shop’. At times I get offended, at times I just smile. For me to stay at home puts a tremendous amount of financial pressure on us. We do not rely on government assistance, nor do we borrow from people anymore, they can speak their doubts into your life when you need encouragement the most. We have chosen, my husband and I, to be living sacrifices unto the Lord. We do not believe in birth control, because we believe that God is in control. Like my friend Gisla Bush, who’s daughter, Grace, was featured on another Ex Ministries article for graduating from college before high school at 16, God’s word is to be the primary purpose behind what we do and how we live. For far too many Christians, obeying God in fruitfulness and being homemakers as wives is just a little too much to ask. Gisla, is both an attorney and architect but out of obedience to God’s will, stays home to raise and teach her kids. In the flesh it is tough but by God’s Spirit we do it and He sees us through. So I’m not moved by our president’s disdain for God’s structure. I more pity those who digest his views and miss out on God’s best by following His truths.
Excellent, your husband and yourself are examples that GOD”S model for life can work. Just reading your comments, lets me know your children will be well educated and mannered when they head out into the world.
GOD BLESS!
I was married 5 years before starting a family. I longed to be able to stay at home with my kids, but was a working mom. Exhausting. Especially during the pre-school years. Fortunately, I was blessed to be able to set my own work hours. My work schedule ended at 3:00, when school let out. I worked only 4 out of 5 days. Friday, the 5th day was my “RUN” day:
RUN the dishwasher and vacuum cleaner
RUN the washing machine and dryer
RUN the iron over these clothes
RUN to the bank, grocery store, dry cleaners, etc.
The weekends were set aside for my family. Period. I went back to work on Monday just to get some rest! LOL!
I would have loved to have had the option of home-schooling, but I did not have my spouse’s support, so I improvised. I will never regret the money not earned as a result of my abbreviated work schedule. As a parent, you don’t get a “do-over.”
Excellent point on the do-over, keeping running towards CHRIST and GOD will provide all things needed, including a spouse. GOD BLESS
It is my hope and dream to be an at home wife and mother. A teacher to my children and a help meet to my husband. It is commanded by the Lord and with my whole heart I long to please Him who gave His life for me.