I'm tired. Too tired to think, too tired to type, and, ummm, too tired to blog.
So, I apologize in advance if this week's post is, well, a bit weary. It's not just that it's been a crazy month with visiting parents, holiday celebrations, my son's birthday, my wedding anniversary, two international trips (one personal, one work) and the rest of the activities and commitments that make up my regular routine. It's this:
I am tired of the "mommy wars."
In the last few weeks, the "mommy wars" seem to have mutated from a mostly far-off skirmish (albeit, one that never completely goes away) to a hot home front battle. There have been a slew of articles, commentary and "analysis" from politicians, pundits, and bloggers drumming up the conflict. (Just Google "mommy wars" and you'll see.) The line of fire has come from multiple directions including the Ann Romney-Hilary Rosen row and French feminist Elisabeth Badinter's new book, The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women. (Actually, more on that when I'm awake. From what I've read about the book and Badinter's philosophy, it will be a controversial but interesting read.)
While much of this mommy war-mongering seems phony, manufactured cynically to sway women voters and sell books, it's clear that there are still some real divisions in society over motherhood and work. The Pew Research Center recently reported that while society has, more or less, come to a consensus that values women in the workforce, there's still a lot of what Pew termed "ambivalence" about working moms, especially moms with young children working outside the home. (In fact, 37% of Americans think that this is "bad" for society.) Sometimes, when that ambivalence is stoked, the "mommy wars" erupt.