"The Mommy Wars" Hit the Campaign Trail

Is anyone else as sick and disgusted as I am that there is even such a term as "the Mommy Wars" and that moms who work at home still have to justify that the job of raising kids and running a household is actual work?

Anne Romney, a 64-year-old mother of five and grandmother of 16 was attacked by Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, who in a political discussion over Romney's lack of experience in understanding the concerns of working women, claimed Anne Romney had no right to be a part of the discussion because in Rosen's words, “Guess what, (Romney’s) wife has actually never worked a day in her life.”

Rosen has subsequently said, "This really isn’t about stay-at-home vs. working moms, I have kids. It's the hardest job I've ever had. Romney has brought his wife into conversation. ... It's strategic to attack me rather than talk about the issues."

After Rosen's remarks, Ann Romney immediately responded with the tweet, “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”

Rosen then responded via twitter saying; “I’ve nothing against @AnnRomney. I just don’t want Mitt using her as an expert on women struggling to support their family. She isn’t.”

And later Rosen went on to tweet, “@AnnDRomney Please know, I admire you. But your husband shouldn’t say you are his expert on women and the economy,” .

Now let's just back up a second shall we? The bottom line is this: Anne Romney had the luxury to make a decision so many women don't-- she was able to choose to stay home and make her full time job raising kids. And let's just make another thing clear- raising five boys is NO WALK IN THE PARK. (I have one boy whose energy and constant movement has me EXHAUSTED and I salute any mother who has the resilience and presence of mind to bring up FIVE boys). Let's also just make this point crystal clear as well...the management of a house, which includes laundry, food shopping, cooking dinners, cleaning and keeping things running smoothly, well- it's all work. Someone has to do it, when you have a family and kids who need their basic needs met as well as their emotional needs tended to--it is all intense physical and mental work . And if you are a mother who needs to work outside of the home, you are often outsourcing those needs of both your kids and your home to others by paying them to get it done. So if you look at stay at home moms workload under that light-- it is work that is paid for, except the stay at home moms don't get paid for it.

Attacking a woman who is at home with her kids does not further women's issues or rights for that matter either. Not to sound kumbayaish- but we all have a job to do- whether we are lucky enough to do that job and to be there to make breakfast for our kids, do their laundry (oh what a joy that task is) to change diapers all day, do homework, shuttle kids to after school activities, make dinner, do bath times and then do it all over again 24/7, or we outsource some of that work to cleaning people and babysitters because we need an income as well- we are still ALL working mothers. We just have different kinds of work. None is more valuable than the other it is just different.

I just hate that two strong, clearly intelligent women are playing out this tit for tat mommy war on a campaign trail which has OH SO much bigger fish to fry!

More Mommy Wars:

• I'm Usually Not Team Gwyneth, But Today I Am
• Moms Taking the Career Off-Ramp