Friday, April 17, 2009

Dr. Laura's Book on SAHMs: "In Praise of Stay-At-Home Moms"

I'll admit, as a guy, I have never listened to Dr. Laura Schlessinger's radio show. I'm not really her target audience. But she did release a new book last week that is pretty pertinent to this blog: "In Praise of Stay-At-Home Moms." The book essentially talks about how all moms should be stay at home moms. Now, that's not feasible, but she does make a good case.

Here is an interview from the Wall Street Journal with a lot of good information. She talks about actually making the decision to stay home and the decision to return to work. I do sort of take issue with this part:

WSJ: Where do stay-at-home dads fit into the picture?
Dr. Schlessinger: I
recommend that during the first three years, the mom should be at home because
all of the research shows that the person whose body you come out of and whose
breast you suck at, at that stage, really needs to be the mom -- unless she's
incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. After that, flip a coin.
I think it's probably pretty obvious that I am also a fan of stay-at-home dads, so this comment seems to discount a man's ability to adequately care for a kid until the age of three. That's just silly. Regardless, it's a good interview and a very intriguing book. Let me know if any of you have read or plan to read. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
I've also included a link to a thread on the Baby Center forums with a TON of responses to this book. Needless to say, there are more than a few working moms out there not exactly thrilled with Dr. Laura's message.

http://blogs.babycenter.com/celebrities/2009/04/12/dr-laura-says-all-moms-should-stay-at-home/?scid=momsbaby_20090414:2&pe=2Uvqt1h

3 comments:

  1. Maybe I read that quote wrong, but I think she was talking about the mom needing to be a mom. We go through so many changes from pregnancy to after birth and in my experience, going back to work crated some internal emotional issues. I have not read her book, but that particular quote, imo, makes sense to me. Interesting blog btw...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe, but I didn't take it that way. Regardless, I think the rest of the book is a great tribute to SAHMS. That part just struck a "dad nerve."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here was my take on it:

    http://momtrends.blogspot.com/2009/08/dr-laura-in-defense-of-stay-at-home.html

    Didn't mention the daddy angle--put feel free to add a comment on my post.

    ReplyDelete