Author Archive
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Balances the Checkbook
After weeks of race-baiting with the Trayvon Martin case, the Democrats are at it again and this time they’re dipping their toes into Mommy Wars. Hillary Rosen, Democrat strategist, has let us all know again what she and the Left (especially faux feminists) thinks of stay-at-home moms. You don’t count. Rosen let out her venom on CNN against Ann Romney.
‘What you have is, Mitt Romney running around the country saying, “Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. And when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.”
‘Guess what: his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the kind of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.’
Besides the obvious knock at motherhood and insinuating, not so subtly, that raising five children is somehow not work worthy of respect, she also assumes that most American women have to work in order to put food on the table and those who don’t simply live in the lap of luxury. Obama himself had this to say on the subject a few days ago at the White House forum for women (to which no conservative women were invited). As reported by the UK Daily Mail,
“Once I was in the state legislature, I was teaching, I was practicing law, I’d be traveling….And we didn’t have the luxury for her not to work.”
The idea that stay-at-home moms are financially able to do so is a popular one on the Left. The Democrats would have you believe that only rich women can stay home. This is a lie. On the contrary, staying at home is not a “luxury” but a sacrifice. Rosen chose to sacrifice her children for a high paying job in the Democrat Party. She could have given up pedicures, designer clothes, fancy cars and political power instead. It’s amazing what you can live without when you decide to do so. (At one point Rosen did stay home with her children for a while. I wonder if during that time she considered her ideas on the economy void.)
When Obama was a state senator in my home state of Illinois he brought home a salary of $60,000 plus an extra $32,000 as a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago. This combined salary is more than my family lives on right now and we have the same number of children and live in the same state. According to the Obamas’ lifestyle, however, it wasn’t enough for them (not surprising considering he and Michelle have a penchant for Wagyu beef and Wednesday night cocktail parties with celebrities.) You can’t serve Stevie Wonder canapes from the frozen food section at Aldi. It simply isn’t done.
5 Myths That Will Destroy Your Marriage
Last August my parents gifted Mr. Fox and me with A Weekend To Remember for our eleventh anniversary. You can imagine our reactions were very different.
Me: “Cool! Two days with no kids!”
Him: “Crap. If this is one of those things where I have to hold hands with strangers and share my feelings I’ll hurt someone.”
A quick Google search assured him there would be no group sharing. It was a simple seminar with no small groups or embarrassing confessions. Instead we would listen to experts talk about topics we should be interested in like getting along, loving more, and parenting better; and then we could go out on the town in lovely Schaumburg, Illinois, and enjoy all the fabulous restaurants, of which there are many. None of this made Mr. Fox any more at ease. His jaw clenched so tight for the car ride out there I could see a vein throbbing in his cheek which, after eleven years, I have identified as a neon sign that says: “Don’t speak.” He was probably plotting his exit strategy.
Happily, it was nothing like he expected and we found ourselves laughing from the first minute it started. The entertaining speakers overflowed with advice we’d never heard before. Not only that, but it had been about five years since we had looked each other in the eyeballs without interruption. Was he always this funny? Have his eyes always been that blue? It was almost as if we had a chance to remember each other. Daily life with little kids is so fast and hectic that it is very easy to lose each other in referee mode. It’s pure survival.
5 Problems with Generation X Attachment Parenting
The topic of mothering is fraught with danger.
I do not claim to know anything other than what I’ve experienced. Each child is different from the next and requires a unique approach. This makes a mother’s job much like guessing how many jellybeans sit in a jar.
There’s no guarantee of reward for your efforts. Further, any criticism stings like a knife in the heart — one of the most difficult parts of motherhood. Anyone with a disapproving mother-in-law or even a stranger on a mommy chat board can relate. It is not the intention, therefore, of this article to pick on mothers and their choices (especially methods that work for them) but to ask the beleaguered and exhausted, much like Dr. Phil would, “how’s it workin’ out for ya?”
Like shoes, methods for raising kids come in and out of fashion and each generation adopts its own style. Mine, Generation X, has embraced Attachment Parenting with engaged mothers (a record number stay at home) hyper-focused on positive discipline, co-sleeping, baby-wearing, nursing, and many other child-centered theories. I’ve practiced many of the Attachment Parenting principles and find most of them wonderful. However, certain aspects of this child-rearing philosophy are not always good for families and can result in unhappy moms, too much mommy-guilt and stress, not enough sleep, and husband-neglect. (All of which I am guilty.) The following are some of the roadblocks that keep me from completely embracing my generation’s idea of good parenting.
First, did you grow another appendage or is that a baby under your shirt?
10 Guaranteed Methods To Lose a Man, As Seen on The Bachelor
For the comedy portion of your day…
It seems that almost everything on television these days is reality entertainment. While most of it is completely unwatchable (Jersey Shore and Housewives from Anywhere) there are a few that some of us can’t stop watching (even though we wish we could.) For me, it’s The Bachelor. I’ve been watching this insipid show from the very first season and the inevitable spin-offs like The Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad. I can’t help myself and the only explanation that seems to make sense is the escapism of watching 25 women and one jackass make fools of themselves every Monday night.
Maybe it makes me feel better about me or perhaps it’s the only way I stay connected to pop culture considering the rest of my life is filled with homeschooling, gardening, moon-shining, writing and other 18th century pastimes. Mostly though, I have a desire to reach through the screen and grab these women by the forearms and shake them. It’s no wonder they’re all single. Almost every one of them make the most common and most avoidable mistakes while trying to land a man. Yes, I’ve made them, you’ve made them…who hasn’t? But the question is, why do women continue to make the same blunders that only provoke men to run away screaming? Sisters, learn from others’ experience! The following are 10 solid ways to lose a man.
10. Drink too much
Alcohol is not your friend in a first-impression situation. On The Bachelor, the production staff liquors up a room full of women to see the fun that will ensue. Alcohol is the most important set requirement on The Bachelor. Many contestants have reported that the first cocktail party is longer than 5 hours with no food and nothing to drink but booze. This combination leads to the explosive moments we love to hate including the over-emotional break-downs and cat fights. Without the influence of the demon rum, it would be a much more boring affair. If at all avoidable, do not drink on a first date! First of all, you may not know enough about your date to know if you can trust him in a situation when you are intoxicated. Also, drunk girls are annoying. They do things like repeat themselves and tuck their dress into their underwear on a trip to the bathroom. While memorable, this is not the impression you want to leave with your date (or on YouTube.)
In Defense of Starting an Argument in Public for Humanity’s Greater Good
A few days ago, I took my kids to one of those places with giant inflatable slides that sane people avoid. My best friend was in town for her once-a-year visit home and in order to show the kids a “good time” took them to inflatable kid heaven, otherwise known as the Jump Zone.
It’s always a mistake, with the noise level and the creeping panic attacks (“Is my kid ever going to come out of there and if not, will I fit because I didn’t squeeze into my Spanx today?”) This time was no exception. I had a truth-moment that will be forever etched on my soul that announced over the loudspeaker in my brain, “Society is doomed. Most people are idiots.” My father says he came to this conclusion many years ago and there’s no big news in it. I always held out hope that the majority of the idiots were the ones who landed on the news for tattooing their ex with depictions of excrement or on the Maury Povich show with a 200 pound eight-year-old. Most people, I thought, are your neighbors who are sane, decent folks. Not so! It turns out the world is littered with mopes and I have proof.
Your “WTF?” Moment of the Day: Obama And His Slaves
This photo offends me more than the president’s non-existent “jobs” bill. I don’t recall an American president who ever had an umbrella-carrier. As a woman, I of course have had an umbrella held for me by my father and then by my husband. It’s good manners for a gentleman to hold an umbrella for a lady. But when a man has someone shielding him from the elements it sends a whole different message that has nothing to do with appropriate behavior. It is the opposite. It says, “I’m important. Wait on me.” Only douchebags do it.
Case closed. Here we have P-Diddy, who by all accounts is a strong, healthy young man but has more money than is good for him and feels it necessary to hire another human being to keep pace with him and shield him from the sun. Douchebag.
Speaking of douchebags, here’s a famous one you probably have never heard of in History class. This is Neville Chamberlain, most famous for falling in love with Hitler and trying assure England Hitler had no plans to attack…as the Luftwaffe was on the way to London. Chamberlain, not surprisingly, liked a little help with his umbrella.
And who could be weirder than Michael Jackson who, while occasionally seen carrying his own umbrella, was more often seen being followed about by sychophants appeasing his fear of the sun. Poor Jackson was definitely a victim of too much money and too much fame (like most of the others who begin to feel the weight of an umbrella handle is too much to bear.)
During my search for American presidents who don’t carry their own umbrellas (of which I found none except the current guy) I found the man I expected to be a possible perpetrator actually holding an umbrella for someone else! Have we reached a point in history where we can truthfully say that Carter wasn’t the worst president in the history of this nation?
And even despicable despots have been known to carry their own umbrellas. This is a guy who probably has people assigned to pick the grit from between his toes and yet he can still stomach the laborious task of holding his own weather shield.
At this precise moment, I’m not sure who the guy walking with Gadaffi is, but I’m 99.9% sure he’s a douchebag who probably ran some third-world country into the ground.
On the other hand, the majority of the photos I found Googling presidents with umbrellas were of George Bush struggling with his own umbrella.
Or, just using one like a normal person.
Even Hillary Clinton has the ability to carry her own rain guard device with quite a bit of style! Lovely photo.
Maybe the offensiveness isn’t that he isn’t carrying his own umbrella but that he keeps reminding us, at a nauseating level, that he is elevated above us. Obama likes to reinforce the idea that he is someone special with his Wednesday night cocktail parties where Stevie Wonder plays in his living room and they dine on food not many of us can afford. Maybe it’s the fact that I was taught in America, anybody could be the president. You could come from nothing, know no one and simply work hard and get elected to the highest office in the land. And most of our presidents have had that sense of awe about their stay in our nation’s capitol. None of them have openly rubbed their good fortune in our faces in the way this man has or treated the wealth of the nation as their personal piggy bank. He has treated the presidency as if he has won the lottery and it is his to do with it what he wants.
Are you offended yet?
Note the umbrella holder in this photo is dressed the same as the one on the plane steps with a very similar hair cut. Could “umbrella carrier” be an actual job in this White House?
Michelle Obama to America: “Let them eat kale!”. Michelle Obama to the waitstaff: “Where’s my lobster? And gimme a side of chili fries with extra cheese!”
Megan Fox is a radio host — and a home-schooling mother of two in a suburb of Chicago — who has been paying great attention to the hectoring Michelle Antoinette Obama’s been giving parents in her “Let’s Move!” crusade against other people’s obesity while seemingly eating every fancy and expensive thing she can in her remaining time in the White House. Megan takes a look at some of our illustrious First Lady’s endless hippo-crasy for HillBuzz.org.
