[NOW} Reaching out to moms

NJ.com ^ | 01 October 2004 | PEGGY O'CROWLEY

[Lorianne]

AT FIRST GLANCE, the women and their children at the community center in Morris Plains seemed to be a play group or mothers' club. But in between nursing babies and soothing toddlers, the conversation was about paid parental leave, affordable child care, and Social Security credits for at-home moms.

A meeting of Morris County Mothering NOW was under way. Yes, that's right, NOW, as in the National Organization for Women, the nation's leading feminist group.

"We want to bring mothers' issues to the front burner. We're going to have discussions that might not seem appropriate at a play group," said Laurie Pettine, 36, an at-home mother of two from Mendham and a founder of the task force. The task force, affiliated with the Morris County NOW chapter, and another affiliated with the South Jersey-Alice Paul chapter in Moorestown are believed to be the only such groups in the country.

[knuthom]

Critics took that as evidence that while NOW was an advocate for workplace issues, the actual job of being a mother was not accorded respect, a theme explored in Ann Crittendon's 2001 bestseller, "The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued."

I don't think most NOW members will ever respect motherhood.

[LSU Engineer]

You're absolutely right! Ironically, the organizers of the "V Vote" are the ones who complain loudest about the objectification of women!

[Mears]

Thanks---I was unfamiliar with the term.