Posted on 08/28/2007 6:39:54 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Elizabeth Edwards Responds to Attack Over Parenting Skills
August 28, 2007 7:36 PM
ABC News Sunlen Miller Reports: Elizabeth Edwards is taking some heat about her parenting skills from the mom-friendly website "Silicon Valley Moms Blog."
Blogger "Rebecca" wrote a fiery tirade on the site Monday morning attacking Mrs. Edwards choice to bring her two small children, Jack and Emma Claire, on the campaign trail with her while her husband, John Edwards runs for president.
" . you are being a terrible mother, forcing your young children, who should be in SCHOOL, to ride in buses and talk to the press when they obviously don't want to. This election is NOT ABOUT THEM, " blogger Rebecca writes.
Responding to the New York Times article over the weekend about the Edwards decision to include their children in campaigning the blog writes, as if speaking directly to Mrs. Edwards, that her kids, " deserve some peace, not time with nannies and campaign-trail daycare providers, since, as the Times article describes, you don't have time to see them when you are busy campaigning too."
Mrs. Edwards comments about Hillary Clinton in a recent Salon.com interview were also criticized on the blog, "What resonated in my mind was the way that she (Elizabeth Edwards) dissed Hillary Clinton, decrying the "choices" that Hillary has made. The implication, of course, was that Hillary chose to work rather than spend time with her child. But it took all of my self control not to ask her, Was it Hillary's work for the Children's Defense Fund, where she saved millions of lives of poor children, that you thought was a poor choice? Or was it when she went to China and announced, possibly for the first time ever, that women's rights are human rights? Or perhaps was it the way that insisted on being taken seriously, since she too was an accomplished attorney like her husband?"
The blogger lashed out and concluded, " Elizabeth, I DON'T LIKE the choices you have made! TAKE YOUR KIDS HOME."
The blog-savvy Elizabeth Edwards took only eight hours to respond to this online attack.
Posting in the comments section of the website, Elizabeth Edwards responded with an equally fiery post, " what I said about Hillary's choices is that I had made the same choices she had made as a parent, and when I changed my choices I was happier. Just like you don't get to decide what makes me happier, I don't get to decide what makes Hillary happier."
And the mother-of-three wrote at length about her choices as a mother, electing to bring along her children on the campaign trail, "
.you have no idea what the quality or amount of the time I spend with my children is
.You don't get to say I am a terrible mother because you think you wouldn't make my choices in my situation
You don't get to judge me because you think you know exactly what you would do if you had my disease. I want to be really clear: you don't know. And if the sun always shines on you -- and I pray it does -- you will never know."
I pretty much puked on that one
Where's the popcorn?
Of course Elizabeth has to bring her cancer into the picture.
Wow pretty petty to defend herself against a blogger and a blogger’s opinion. Maybe she can hunt critics down and scold them at their own front doors.
I think Elizabeth Edwards just gave higher visibility to this by responding to a blogger who probably isn’t very well known.
Having said that, just because John and Elizabeth Edwards are totally wrong politically doesn’t mean they are lousy parents. That’s a low-blow. Of course, not so low a blow that Elizabeth herself didn’t engage in low-blow shots at Mary Cheney in 2004.
I don’t know anything about Edwards kids, but I see nothing wrong with taking them along.
Should not her very masculine husband be taking up the cause here?
They can learn failure at an early age.
######They can learn failure at an early age.######
ROTFL!!!!! That’s a good one!
We know who wears the pants in that family.
Me too. Hillary has done nothing for anyone but herself and it will always be that way.
” .... I see nothing wrong with taking them along.”
Me, either. The alternative would be to leave them at home with the nannies or have Mrs. Edwards quit the campaign. Fact is, she doesn’t have that much more time to spend with either her husband or her children, so she might as well be with them together as a family unit for such time as she does have.
The Edwardses can afford to hire traveling tutors The short-lived Edwards campaign would be a much more educational experience for the kids than sitting on a school bus and in a public school classroom (as if they’d go to public school).
I don’t like either of the Edwardses or their politics, but taking their kids along on the campaign trail is hardly an area worth attacking.
Hooey. I am tired of this woman’s emotional manipulation, and the extra wide berth her antics are given. Don’t forget she’s a lawyer too, and her ambulance chasing husband couldn’t shine her shoes when it comes to laying it on thick. Like the Mom, I too wish that Elizabeth would take her kids and go home. The same goes for Barry’s wife and the two girls, using those kids on the stump is just low class.
If I had only a few years to live and children the ages of hers, I would go home and make memories with them. We would bake cookies and takes walks and read bedtime stories.
We need strength in the White House now, not wimps that let their wives (husbands) speak for them.
Not smart Liz. And coming off several other not smart moves. She managing to somehow be an unsympathetic cancer patient. Quite a trick.
I can see the campaign staff drawing straws on who gets to tell John he better muzzle her - fast.
You go girl referring to the picture.
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