GOP Senator Says Moms Need More 'Me' Time, Votes Against That Ever Happening
Remember to take care of YOU ... somehow
New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-So You Already Know This Will Not End Well) is a real modern day have-it-all kind of lady. She has a job andchildren, if you can even imagine how hard that is, and you, typical average American, probably can't. How ever does she do it? She's got that nice six-figure salary and terrific benefits, with a unlimited sick days and vacation time and great healthcare, so that helps. Plus, she really only has to work part-time, since those Senate guys (and girl-guys like Ayotte!) spend a lot of their year being on "out of session" vacay. And while the rest of us dumb average American suckers only get,at best , a three-day weekend for important holidays, like the anniversary of when Columbus got lost and discovered "India," they take off the entire week! Senatoring is such great not-work if you can get it.
ANYHOO-HA. Here is some swell advice for all you working parents out there, direct from Sen. Supermom herself:
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she says while encouraging parents to not feel guilty about taking alone time to recharge. “It’s really important, even just a half hour a day, find your time to clear your mind, to make you feel fresh and also step back and think about priorities.”
Sen. Ayotte knows it's "really important" for parents to have time for themselves. That's why she has always supported pro-family legislation to make it easier for parents to find that minimum half hour a day she recommends.
Like a bill for mandatory paid sick leave, so workers can care for elderly parents or wipe the snot from their sick kids' faces, without it hurting them right in the paycheck, or consuming whatever vacation time they've accrued, if any, that they might otherwise spend on that Me Time Ayotte says is so critical.
Ha, just kidding! She opposed that because, she said in a 2010 debate, "that is certainly an issue that should be addressed by employers rather than mandated by the government." And if your employer thinks you can spend your recharging alone time taking care of your family without pay, oh well. Freedom isn't free.
It's not as if Ayotte doesn't get it. She's a mom. And she had a mom too, so she double gets it!
“My mother was a working mom herself and I really admire her because she got pregnant with me at a young age. She was in college when she got pregnant and she dropped out of college and never finished. But, she worked really hard,” says Ayotte concluding that taking leadership and having resilience as a mother rubs off on your children.
Awwww, what a heart-warming illustration of what happens to women who become pregnant at a young age and have to abandon their higher education -- and, ultimately, higher earning potential -- to work really hard to support their families. And, let us not forget, they do it on paychecks from which the average automatically deducted "Just For Being A Lady" tax is about 22 percent now adays . It was a whole lot worse in the before times, when Little Kelly was born in 1968.
That's why Ayotte has also supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, to improve the lives and incomes of moms like her, so they can maybe have a little extra to treat themselves to a guilt-free spa day now and then. Haha, just kidding again! Ayotte voted against Paycheck Fairness a whole bunch of times . And then, just for kitten-heel kicks, she and some of her fellow lady Republicans introduced their own adorable "Equal Pay" bill, which wouldn't actually strengthen equal pay laws so much as weaken them by creating extra loopholes for employers. It's like the same thing, only different.
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Know what else helps moms achieve that work-family balance? The Title X Family Planning Program allows women greater opportunities to stay in school, pursue higher-paying careers, and better care for their children if and when they decide to have them. That's why Ayotte has always supported -- aw heck, let's drop this charade and get right to pointing out how she's against that too:
In addition to voting three times to defund Planned Parenthood, Ayotte has also voted to eliminate all funding for the Title X Family Planning Program, which helps fund 4,200 Family Planning Centers that serve 4.5 million individuals across the country.
It's a lot harder for parents, especially of the lower-income mom kind, to find that extra half hour a day for themselves when they have to work 27 hours a day to support their families. Harder still when the only kind of healthcare they can afford is offered through programs and organizations that Ayotte and her fellow Republicans keep trying to defund.
It's almost as if Ayotte thinks it's easy for average American parents who don't have her income or her flexible work schedule (unlimited sick days!) or her amazing benefits to find that necessary time for themselves; it's just that they forget to do it. Thankfully, they've got Ayotte to remind them to add it to their to-do list.
It must be that kind of genuine concern for families that has made Ayotte so popular with her constituents. Hahaha, obviously just kidding once more because don't be ridiculous. A recent poll shows a whopping 38 percent of voters in her state approve of the job she's doing for them. That's about 10 points lower than the approval rating of New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, the Democrat who just so happens to be running against Ayotte in 2016 so she can help families instead of trying to make their lives harder, the way Ayotte does.
And just think about how much free time that would give Sen. Supermom to clear her head and "feel fresh" and not feel at all guilty about it.
[ Foster's Daily Democrat / New Hampshire Democratic Party ]