Nothing like a vice-presidential candidate and governor who’s also a mother of five, including a special-needs infant son and a pregnant teen-age daughter, to add fuel to the already heated debate about the appropriate balance between child-rearing and working .

Within two hours of The Washington Post reporting on its Web site the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, more than 1,000 people had weighed in, fighting about whether Palin, 44, is placing her own political ambition above the needs of her family.

Social conservatives, usually advocates for stay-at-home motherhood, mostly defend Palin. Others, including working mothers, are concerned she is taking on too much.

What do y’all think?

If you had a 4-month-old infant with Down syndrome, would you take on the job of full-time campaigning across the nation? Would you go back to work as governor of Alaska three days after giving birth?

And if you knew your 17-year-old daughter was pregnant and not-yet-married, would you accept the vice-presidential slot or bypass the chance to make history in order to spare your daughter the embarrassing spotlight?

Or is it unfair to scrutinize Palin about any of these questions, that, after all, no male candidate has to endure?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Parenting News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.