My Critics

My recently published article on being a stay-at-home mother has brought out a few choice comments on my selfishness, calculating and not likable nature, and general immaturity.

I appreciate a good debate but never want to shove my views down other people's throats.  You can believe what you want and I don't feel the need to try and convince you otherwise.  All I want is the opportunity to be honest about all this motherhood stuff, because frankly, I think that honesty is lacking in most of the motherhood conversations I see.

Not to draw attention to my critics, but the following comment, which was published on Forbes, is too unbelievable not to post.  Did she actually read what I wrote?


"Thanks for sharing this.


I had a stay-at-home mother and breadwinner father and hated it, so I really like to see women get out of this victimized mentality. Taking adult responsibility for yourself is really important for your children.


I don’t understand why you are seeing your husband as not responsible for half the unpaid work of the family. And if he wishes to outsource some of that by paying for child care or housekeeping or something, that is his responsibility.


And you need to be making money to shoulder your share of the burden. You should be taking responsibility for earning the money to cover half the basic expenses of the family, such as housing, health insurance, food, taxes, education. That is what adults do.


This is not just about you and your indulging your husband and his career as though he is an infant himself or indulging yourself and your victimization as though you are an infant yourself.


Please, for the sake of your child, consider becoming an adult."


And here I was thinking being a stay-at-home mom was a responsible thing to do.  While I am not always the most mature person around, I like to think being responsible for a home and two children is pretty "adult" like behavior.