Silly Politics: The "working" woman debate.

This week I was once again reminded of how silly and senseless politics can get. Not long after the ridiculous "etch a sketch" fiasco created by a Romney spokesman, we are dealing with another fake scandal of words which will likely blow over in a week. In the meantime, the republican party is juicing it for all they can while the democrats are doing damage control. All over a misconstrued, misinterpreted comment made by a democratic strategist who does NOT work for the Obama campaign. Hilary Rosen stated on CNN in regards to working women  that Ann Romney would not be able to give proper advice to her husband since Ann Romney " had never worked a day in her life". UhOh. Did I hear all the stay at home Moms shudder at once? Ann Romney, who states that she chose to be a stay at home Mom of 5 sons as her career, took offense to that statement as well as the statement that her husband is not sensitive to women's issues.
Here is the thing. Hilary Rosen did not say in the interview that being a stay at home Mom is not considered work. In my opinion she didn't even imply it. She was referring to women in the work force. Women whose daycare benefits may get cut under the Romney economic plan. Women who work just as hard as men in the workforce but get paid less. With all due respect to Mrs.Romney who is worth 250 million dollars, you are not one of these women. I am sure living on 21 million dollars a year affords some luxuries in raising 5 children that the average American can only dream of.
While reading on this "controversy", I came across an interesting statistic from the 2007 census. It found that 23% of married women with children below the age of 15 are stay at home Moms. Most of these stay at home Moms were Hispanic, foreign born and women without a high school diploma. Why is this? I was reminded of my interview with a low income Hispanic family in the emergency room. One of my standard questions that I ask everyone is if their child attends daycare (daycare being a haven for germs and illnesses). This father laughed at my question and said "Of course not. He is only 10 months old. He stays at home with his mother". I couldn't help myself, it had been a long tiring day. My response " Well Dad, he is lucky because a lot of families have to put their children in Daycare in order to go to work and make a living". If I'm being honest, I do notice in my profession that the majority of low income and a substantial amount of high income Moms stay at home with their children. Financially speaking, for low income families it probably makes more sense if you have several children to stay at home vs paying for daycare. For high income families, parents can afford to have not only the Moms at home but nannies that provide assistance. What happens to working families? What about the mothers that are struggling to hold down a job to help support the family while also taking care of the household, husband and children. These families fall on that precarious line between making too much to qualify for federal assistance and making too little to pay all the bills. These are the women my heart bleeds for. These are the families that need our help including providing affordable daycare, affordable tuition for higher education to advance their careers and salaries and teaching a trade or skill set to do the same.
So to all the politicians out there, can we please get back to the real issues??!!

Thoughts?