Stay-at-Home Moms -- I am One!

The longer this has gone on the more ridiculous this has become.  It hit me this morning as I was reading another foolish email from the RNC trying to convince women that Romney is their guy that their pushing the Romney Family as Middle Class America is an affront to the rest of us who are part of the Middle Class and raised our families without the help of housekeepers, cooks, gardeners, etc.

I have never been one to envy people with a lot of money but then the millionaire types I know don't pretend they are me either.  Having been around politics for many years attending fundraisers, I have met some really down to earth very wealthy people and some real jerks but that happens in all walks of life.  Never have I met someone worth so much money that pretends to be like the Middle Class and has shared our concerns over the years like Romney and his family.  I find it disgusting to put it mildly that Romney and his wife think her being a Stay-at-Home Mom is the same as most of us who have stayed home and raised a family.

Worked for the first 2 1/2 years of my daughter's life and then we took our daughter to Disney World and when we came home, she did not want to go back to Kindercare.  After we had gone back to work at Wright-Patterson AFB, she was really unhappy so we decided I would ask for the summer off since I was getting a new boss who would not be in until the fall and by then we thought she would be better.  The acting boss said no to my taking off the summer, and my husband said give your two week notice, you are quitting.  It was the smartest move we ever made.

The first Monday my daughter and I were home, she went around touching all her toys after her Dad went to work and then went downstairs in the tri-level to play with our dog -- hearing her having so much fun made me know we had made the right decision.  The first thing to go was any major vacation with the decreased income so we started doing things in the local area -- the zoo, the amusement park, and swimming at the Officer's Club in the summer.  My son was born the next May and settled in living in suburbia with vacations being to see my husband's family in Upstate New York.  We had no help -- just the kids and I as my husband traveled to Texas a lot on the F-16.  I cooked, cleaned, took care of the outside, and had a garden.

Then we got word we were being transferred to Norton AFB, CA, outside of San Bernardino in Southern California.  Fortunately, the DoD move package is great.  We were leaving my family behind along with only being 500 miles from my husband's family and local friends to move 2500 miles west.  Knew four people when we arrived in SoCal who had also been at Wright-Patt.  I have two young children, and three days after we arrive my husband is sent to Vandenberg AFB for two weeks.  We are still in a hotel in Redlands so I set out in our station wagon with the kids to explore the area.  It was awesome as we drove around and ate at various places.  Who would have expected to find apple orchards in Southern California.  We couldn't wait to rent a place and bring out our dog who my parents were keeping.  Once we moved in and Sam arrived the kids were so happy.  We ended up buying a home on the other side of town in the foothills and moving in less than a year.  We did all the landscaping and then our youngest daughter was born.

The person who sat with the two kids when our daughter was born, was a young Lt who worked for my husband.  The wive's club from the Ballistic Missile Office was also there to help and you realize that being around a military organization makes a difference especially when you are not near family.  Went to San Bernardino one day to Toys R Us and saw the neighbor from across the street back in Ohio -- they had been transferred to Norton AFB.  Three kids, a husband that traveled a lot, and I did all the work and still found time to volunteer at my daughter's school when she started school.   We didn't take big trips but our kids had a blast visiting all the parks like Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, University, Sea World, Marineland, etc.  That was their vacation.  We didn't have a lot of extra money, but we had a lot of fun and our kids didn't want for much.

To make a long story short we were transferred to New England when my husband was given an Education with Industry assignment.  I learned rapidly that I detested New England.  We first were in NH where on the first day of school, my daughter walked down the hall to fighting in the hallways.  We were still in a hotel and she had left a great school system going to one with no workbooks and very old books but that was nothing compared to the old text books we found when we relocated to MA so our son could go to a public school kindergarten.  Found the New England education system the worst my children ever attended.

MA and New England was the absolute worst place we ever lived -- it was horrible and the most unfriendly people in the world.  Tried to register as a Republican because I thought we were staying there but no registration forms for Republicans.  After the third time, I told my husband after the school year is out, the kids and I are out of here with you or without you.  I told him I would not raise my children in that area.  No family, no friends, huge rent payment, long winter and could barely see the sun rising.  We sold our CA house coming across the Country or we would have been in really bad shape.  The family kept getting sick and after being used to great medical care in SoCal, we had to hunt to find medical care in MA.  That is what real people face when they are transferred.  Yet we were luckier then most because of the Government move package but we had a lot of damage in the move across the Country so it took months to get all that taken care of and estimates which I did -- no outside help.  I will never forget the night after the mover's had loaded the moving truck and we were pulling out, I told my husband who was in the pick-up truck, we are not stopping until we get out of MA.  We spent the night across the border in New York.

That is a microcosm of our transfers -- never much notice and one year our furniture was in storage more than it was with us yet we survived, our kids were good students, and we had each other.  For me to stay home, we gave up the extra things. and I learned to do all the outside work.  I am grateful to this day that I had the opportunity to be a Stay-at-Home Mom and be totally involved in my kid's schools.  Been the PTO President, part of Band Parents, Athletic Parents, Campus Improvement Committee, Textbook Committee, softball coach, etc.  I have sat on my committees then I can count over the years plus tutored reading in the elementary schools for almost 14 years.  One year I was a room mother for all three of my kids home rooms. I dabbled in local politics over the years but my primary focus was my kids and helping my husband with his job as they were short handed in every office.  He was an expert in his field and over the years I learned how to do proposals, etc. so when he retired I helped out the companies.

Raised three kids and they went off to college.  Then I became President of the Parent Club of my youngest's daughter's sorority.  Used to cook one meal a month for my son when he was President of his Fraternity.  That's when I started getting even more involved in politics becoming the Vice Chair of the County, Precinct Chair and President of the oldest Women's Club in the State.  While doing all of this I still cooked, cleaned, and took care of the outdoors plus always involved in projects around the house.  I am no longer involved in local politics even close to before but I still do 100% of the work around the house.

The bottom line is I resent the RNC and other Republicans trying to make Mrs. Romney into someone who worked hard to raise five boys when she had all kinds of paid help.  Their income tax records showed they had five housekeepers even last year.  That is not normal.  I have never had a housekeeper in my life.  I prefer to do most things myself.  I still do all my landscaping including mowing grass and trimming.  Right now I am in the middle of replacing a railroad tie retaining wall which my brother helped tear out with a concrete landscape block.  I figured out the steps and was celebrating when this flap happened about stay-at-home moms happened.  It was a dumb statement for Rosen to make but the RNC has way overplayed their hand when President Obama immediately disavowed what she said.  Just don't tell me that Ann Romney represents the work that most Stay-at-Home Moms do.

There are many women in this Country who would love to stay home with their kids but monetarily cannot handle only having one breadwinner.  You have to sacrifice even if you can afford it as we found out.  I bought clothes for my kids not for me so when the RNC comes along touting her as a typical Stay At Home Mom like one of us who had to do it all, I find it annoying to be kind.  Ann Romney is not like 99.99% of Stay at Home Moms and they need to quit saying she is.  Just like Romney is not unemployed or his sons serving in the Mormon missions is like serving in the military.  Those are not reality.

If the Republicans continue this line of attack, they are going to turn off more people.  Admit Romney is one of the privileged few and doesn't have a clue how the rest of us make ends meet.  Today when I learned there was a parakeet flying around the house when Ann Romney grew up that the maid cleaned up after, I wanted to be ill at what has happened to the Republican Party when being wealthy is considered middle class and the norm.  What happened along the way to the Republicans who were there for the middle class?  They have morphed wealthy people like Romney and his family into what they perceive as the middle class.  Something about being worth over $250,000M doesn't come close to being middle class.  Frankly resent his dishonesty in trying to be one of us when it couldn't be further from the truth and you can throw in his wife who never had met a Republican when he ran as one in 1994.

If the emails I am seeing from the RNC are an example, things are going to get bad as people wake up and realize just who the candidate and his family are that the elites of the Republican Party forced on us with dirty tricks, bending rules, and outright lying.  They want to raise $600M for this race which is nothing short of obscene to run for President -- I think the same thing about Obama raising hundreds of millions of dollars.  The problem is the people you are beholding to when you ask for that kind of money.

Will someone explain to me how Romney and the RNC can be sharing an account already when he is not officially the nominee?  Or is this more of playing by different rules?

Several months ago I asked why I was a Republican in today's Party and that is even more germane today.  I don't know this party who stretches the truth to fit the Romney narrative and why they pushed him on all of us so hard after his 'scorched earth' Democrat style campaign so far.  When you talk about buying an office, a picture of Mitt Romney needs to pop up.  He will say and do anything to get elected as we have seen with his lack of core values that we have come to expect out of Romney and the Republicans who support him.  How much of his support comes from former Democrats because his campaign is more like the Democrats.

This Stay-at-Home Mom is not interested in being pandered to by the Romney Family.  If they had any class they would not try to hide who they are -- most people would have more respect for them.  It is not good enough to be the anti-Obama for me because after this campaign so far I don't see much difference.

Will a new party arise from the ashes that has been created by the elites, Fox News, Karl Rove, Bush 41 and his cronies along with Romney himself and his supporters?  I don't have a clue but I know there are a lot of mad Republicans who have had it with the RNC and their underhanded tactics to get Romney the nomination.
Should be interesting in the months ahead.