Ann Romney Loves It That We Don't Have A Choice

[tapati]

Bear with me; I feel a rant coming on.

Ann Romney talks about how much hard work she did as a wealthy mother of five.

Excerpt:

“I know what’s like to finish the laundry and to look in the basket five minutes later and it’s full again. I know what’s like to pull all the groceries in and see the teenagers run through and all of a sudden all the

Comments

[litlebanana]

I suspect when she says she didn't have help, she meant she didn't have a nanny. There's no way in hell she was cleaning a huge mansion by herself with four kids.

I'm not even poor and I take offense to Ann Romney's comments. How could she say that she loves that there were women who don't have the choice that she had?

[tapati]

One of her sons was interviewed and said they had a housekeeper come once a week, no nannies or anything like that. Life was really tough.

I suspect that was a poorly worded phrase much like Rosen's, and what she meant to say was that she respects women who didn't have a choice other than to work while raising their kids. She didn't think it through.

[litlebanana]

Maybe you're right. Although her saying that she "loves" it that there are mothers who *have to* work is more in line with Romney's requirement that all women receiving government aid be forced to put their babies in daycare so that they can "have the dignity of work."

[wlotus]

I can NOT with her. I really can NOT.

[carmy_w]

I went looking for some history on the family when I read Mitt's, Rosen's, and Ann's last few statements like this.

According to the Wiki entry on Mitt (which I think has been polished to a mirror bright finish by the election squad), they lived in a $75/month basement apartment when Mitt was going to BYU in Utah.
Then I did some digging and came up with an adjusted for inflation figure of $405/month for a similar apartment in 2011 dollars, if I recall correctly.
$400 a month seems like pretty darn high rent for a college student, to me-especially when you have a wife and two kids, which generally means no roommates.

[mariadkins]

$400 a month for rent is what i paid as a college student. for three years. i lived with my boyfriend, who eventually moved out, but once he did, i almost ended up homeless because i couldn't handle working, school, bills, and juggling everything on my own. so, yeah.

we had a politician here in kentucky several years ago (and i keep mentioning this in various places, but it's true) who said that it's possible for a "male head of household of a family of four" to support that family on minimum wage. 1. kentucky doesn't have a living wage; our minimum wage is federal minimum 2. one person living alone can't support himself earning minimum wage 3. i'd like to see this politician try it.

[carmy_w]

That's what struck me, also-that $400/month was pretty pricey for a basement apartment, even with utilities included, and also that $400/month plus food, tuition, and all the other stuff needed for a growing family meant that Mitt was either getting some SERIOUS family help, or was working for his dad/inlaws and getting very very well paid.

[mariadkins]

i'm leaning toward the getting serious help

[mariadkins]

i added this to my tumblr

[lunaetstellae]

I am shocked that she says she "loves it" that those women have to work under those conditions. I am not at all impressed with her 'credentials' she gives us. Remember, even as struggling college kids, she and Mitt were Mormons, and that religion has a support network that they could have (and most likely did) take advantage of. Food pantries, jobs, after-natal care, ladies guild that comes in to help with housework when you are severely ill, etc, etc. to name a few of the resources they had available through their church. I also don't believe that later on they never had house cleaners, or childcare of any sort. With the kind of income that necessitates hiding away part of in off-shore accounts to evade taxation, it is simply unbelieveable that no help was utilized. Bottom line, regardless of how or when they had help, I don't believe that she understands or has experienced the real struggles of the average woman in America. She, along with her husband, don't "get it", and are a poor choice for America to elect to the White House.

[tapati]

One of their sons said they had a house cleaner once a week while he was growing up but that the house would be dirty again soon after she left. But yeah, I know they had family and church assistance as needed when they were younger and then they had wealth of their own so it's not remotely the same and I don't think she gets that at all. Huge blinders on.

[mariadkins]

people with $$ like that don't get it. not unless they came from it in the first place -- and the people who have and care to remember what it was like are extremely rare.