Five post day because a very silly comment has come from the supposed Catholic Cherie Blair in today's Telegraph. Now, I do not get angry very easily, but his lady's comments are "just plain experatin'" and the girl from the Midwest shall take on the lady from London, but then I have many saints, the Teaching Magisterium of the Church, and experience on my side as well as the writings of the last 100 years of popes. Good company, this.
Ms. Blair has basically undermined Catholic Culture, and the teaching of the Catholic Church, regarding the role of motherhood and the role of the wife in the home with modernistic and narrow-minded comments. She obviously doesn't see statistics on stay-at-home mom kids, especially home schooled kids, who are MORE independent and secure than others.
Here are my comments on her points.
1. Women have a right to expect a husband to support them and their children at home. This is the traditional role of man, to be a decent bread-winner, and support a family. Current ideas have seen and pushed for the emasculation of men, many of whom no longer think they need or should support a family. The socialist agenda aids and abets this lie. Also, the poor can marry, not only the rich, but a lower life-style must then be expected by all. There is nothing shameful in that. There is nothing wrong or immoral about being poor.
2. Home schooled children are more independent, get higher test scores, and succeed more than other children, and many statistics show this. At my son's college 25% of the students were from home schooled families in his year. All had scholarships.
3. The lady does not think that being a full-mom is a career. Wow. A stay-at -home mom, even if not the main educator, is the cook, cleaner, laundry-maid, house manager, chauffeur, social secretary, prayer leader, sometimes business clerk, counselor, disciplinarian, spiritual adviser, as well as friend and love of her husband. If there are pets, she is the animal manager as well. I, of course, refer to most moms in the middle-class and even poorer classes, and not those who have help at home.
4. We are supposed to raise our children in the Faith of the Holy Catholic Church and most schools in England which call themselves Catholic are not so. Mothers have more of a responsibility for passing on the Faith, with the dad, then ever before. This takes time and energy. I worked in a seminary, and most of the students there had not only stay-at-home moms, but came from large families. There is a connection.
5. We have an example in the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was not a victim of her time or a patriarchal-anti-feminist, regime of suppression, but the woman called by God from all eternity to have His Son and live under the protection of St. Joseph, and later St. John. These times still see a need, perhaps even more than in any other time, for men to protect women in the home.
6. Society has caused, and her own political perference of socialism has caused the demise of the honoring of the stay-at-home mom by under-cutting the importance of the role of the family as the primary unit of society-a position not held by socialists, who see the material state as all. Her own party has caused more damage in history to the building up of the family, outside the communists, than any other ideology.
7. So, is her work as a lawyer and social commentator more important than that of a mum? No. (She doesn't seem like a happy, peaceful woman).
8. Should girls be educated for back-up careers in case of tragedy and the need to work? Yes, but not at the expense of the house, the children, the husband. This is what selfless love is all about-dying to self is part of motherhood and being a wife. I guess she missed that part of the message of Christ somewhere along the line. Girls should learn vocations and careers and many are called to do such.
"For all her smarts", as we say in the States, I have never been impressed with Ms. Blair's comments in the press all these years. She should just be quiet and maybe, stay at home awhile, learning some wisdom and gentility, two lost gifts of true womanhood.
Here is the article linked above.
Cherie Blair attacks 'yummy mummies' who choose children over careers
Cherie Blair has attacked “yummy mummies” who focus on raising their children at the expense of their careers, suggesting their children lack a sense of independence.
The wife of the former Prime Minister also accused some young women of seeking to “marry a rich husband and retire” instead of working.
Mrs Blair, a QC and mother of four, criticised women who “put all their effort into their children” instead of working. Mothers who go out to work are setting a better example for their children, she said.
Addressing a gathering of “powerful” women at one of London’s most expensive hotels, Mrs Blair said she was worried that today’s young women are turning their backs on the feminism of their mothers’ generation.
Some women know regard motherhood as an acceptable alternative to a career, Mrs Blair said. Instead, women should strive for both.
“Every woman needs to be self-sufficient and in that way you really don’t have a choice - for your own satisfaction; you hear these yummy mummies talk about being the best possible mother and they put all their effort into their children. I also want to be the best possible mother, but I know that my job as a mother includes bringing my children up so actually they can live without me.”
In fact, despite Mrs Blair’s worries about non-working mothers, official statistics show that the proportion of mothers who work has actually risen steadily in recent years.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 66 per cent of mothers are now in some form of paid work. In 1996, the figure was 61 per cent. The number of working mothers is now around 5.3 million, up from 4.5 million in 1996.
Speaking to Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women event in Claridge’s, Mrs Blair appeared to accuse some young women of lacking professional ambition, focussing on their prospective partner’s career instead of their own.
She said: “One of the things that worries me now is you see young women who say: 'I look at the sacrifices that women have made and I think why do I need to bother, why can’t I just marry a rich husband and retire?' and you think how can they even imagine that is the way to fulfil yourself, how dangerous it is.”
Mrs Blair said her view was informed by her own experience of her father abandoning her mother when she was a child. But she insisted that all women should make sure they can provide for themselves: “Even good men could have an accident or die and you’re left holding the baby.”
Often in the headlines during her husband’s premiership, Mrs Blair has taken a more active public role since he left office in 2007, setting up a charitable foundation to support women setting up their own firms in developing countries.
Mr Blair earlier this month told the Leveson Inquiry that his wife had been subjected to a “vendetta” by parts of the media, partly because she had attempted to maintain her career during his time in No 10.
Despite urging women to combine motherhood and work, Mrs Blair conceded that her advice can be taken too far.
“I did many foolish things that I wouldn’t encourage any young woman to do today, and I made no concessions to the fact that I was pregnant,” she said, “One way I got into trouble was ten days before my son was due to be born I was still working and they compulsorily hospitalised me as they said the baby wasn’t growing. It was rubbish – he was fine.”
Ms. Blair sounds like a member of the Gang of Four. I shall pray to St. Olga for her.
And, she obviously does not know how to think like a Catholic, poor thing.