Letters to the Editor

The happy hypocrite I never cared that Caitlin Flanagan calls herself an at-home mother, even though she's a magazine writer with a staff of helpers. But now she's using her battle with cancer to denounce feminism and extol her traditional virtues -- and I've had it. By Joan Walsh [2006-04-12]

• Thank you!

  Thank you! I read Abraham's article in Elle and by the end of it I was infuriated. How dare she preach to working mothers that we're damaging our children while insisting *she* is lavishing her family with all of her love and devotion. Doing what? I'd love to be a "traditional wife and mother" if that meant never doing any laundry or cleaning. If you have a full-time nanny, then a babysitter, and a housekeeper, so you can write (at the kitchen table, snort!), how does that mean you are NOT a working mother? Give me a break. And in spite of all that help, she was *still* depressed. She should have tried being home ALONE for 16 hour stretches every week with energetic boy twins for 2 years straight. My darling sister has done just that with no outside help, just a loving husband. But she has NEVER judged me for working outside the home *and* at home while others took care of my children. Both of us are devoted to our children and our husbands in completely different ways but we RESPECT each other's choices. Flanagan's holier-than-thou attitude is only a manifestation of her own traumas and insecurities. Brava Joan!

  -- Fiorentina
  [Read Fiorentina's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Tuesday, April 11, 2006 07:32 PM
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