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An Open Letter to 'Momma T'
By Kay R. Daly
October 26, 2004

Dear Ms. Heinz-Kerry:

At first, I thought you were nothing more than an interesting side note to the Kerry campaign. A bit of comic relief, if you will. Heaven knows, the country could use it after watching the painful machinations of your husband as he desperately tries to explain his ever-shifting positions on every policy issue imaginable.

It is time, however, for you to put down the gin-soaked raisins and smell the coffee. Let me say this as clearly as I know how: Motherhood IS a full time job. Despite you and your fellow feminists' best efforts to belittle stay-at-home moms, we manage more in an hour than many folks do in an entire day.

Multi-tasking? We invented it, sister. We are managers, psychologists, physicians, chefs, teachers, pastors, physical therapists, personal shoppers, nutritionists, interior decorators, chauffeurs, cruise directors, financial advisors, housekeepers and seamstresses - and that's before lunch.

It may surprise you to know that there are stay-at-home moms who have PhDs, J.D.'s, MBAs and other advanced degrees. But this is a choice that we have made. We recognize that our self-worth is not inexorably linked to our careers. In fact, we made the discovery long ago that our legacy is our children. My tombstone is not going to read "She wrote really great press releases" - it will say "Wife and Mother" and that is an awful lot more to live up to.

And there are many of us who are stay-at-home moms who have managed to have careers while we are at home. That's right, it may come as a shock to feminists who are busily devaluing home and family, but it is no longer necessarily an "either-or" option. Technology allows for telecommuting and many careers now are not bound by the old-fashioned notion of physical presence in an office and a 9-to-5 mentality.

You made your money the old-fashioned way, Ms. Heinz-Kerry - you married it. And while there is nothing at all wrong with having money, there is a certain separation from the reality of people's every day lives. Don't worry, darling, it happens to most nouveau riche.

Clearly, for example, the reality of motherhood may not have ever hit you foursquare in the face. I can certainly imagine that having a fortune at your disposal allowed you to hire a battalion of nannies, night nurses, drivers, chefs and housekeepers to manage the little ones.

And that is your choice. And you have been blessed with the means to make that choice.

Just like it was Laura Bush's choice to leave her career as a teacher and librarian to raise her children. Now I'm quite certain that being a teacher and librarian isn't a glamorous career that one could brag about at Beacon Hill cocktail parties or the spa in Aspen, but outside of motherhood itself, I cannot imagine a more important choice of occupation than working to educate the children of this nation.

We are proud of Laura Bush as our First Lady because she brought back to the White House a true gentility, a quiet propriety that had been missing for many years. She put the "Lady" back in "First Lady."

Where there is no doubt that you would provide endless amounts of material for many of us should your husband be elected and you take your road show to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there is already a generation of young women who have been brainwashed to the notion that their entire sense of value is tied to their career achievements.

So you'll excuse me if I fervently pray that Laura Bush stays put.

Now I understand that you have apologized to Mrs. Bush. But there are many of us out here who have listened to you and your feminist friends for years belittle, lampoon and dismiss those of us who chose to stay at home with our children. We have endured the looks of superiority and that little pause when we answer the "and what do you do" questions at dinner parties. Not that we go to many because babysitters can be quite costly these days.

In other words, Ms. Heinz-Kerry, and I think I speak for many stay-at-home moms, SHOVE it.

Sincerely,

Kay Daly
Stay at home mom of two darling boys....and proud of it.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.