Women work hard — no matter what they do

In case you haven’t turned on the news, or have been hiding under a rock, you are missing out on the eruption of another round of the Mommy Wars. Special thanks to Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen for stirring this one up again.

Ms. Rosen made the comment that Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has never worked a day in her life. Mrs. Romney was a stay-at-home mom.

Where do I start?

Take it from a woman, mom, wife, entrepreneur, college graduate, chief everything officer, butt wiper and boo-boo kisser. It doesn’t matter what you do. It is all hard.

I’m not going to just take the side of the stay-at-home mom, because I have been on all sides of this fight. I have been the young 20-something working 80-plus hours a week on the executive fast track. That stint landed me in the hospital with an ulcer. That was hard.

Then I became a new mom who had to drop her baby off at day care when she was only six weeks old so I could go back to my career. Have you ever sat through a meeting with Fortune 500 executives while your breasts turned into geysers because you hadn’t fed your baby or pumped for three hours? You haven’t experienced humiliation until you see a room full of men either gag collectively into their coffee cups or reach for their own carton of milk thanks to the large wet circles that appear on your suit jacket. That was hard.

How about seeing your toddler lie on the couch with a 104-degree fever while a taxi is honking outside waiting to take you to the airport for a business trip? That was hard.

Then there were the days of taking care of three kids under the age of 4, one with autism. Days where you are pretty sure this is exactly what heaven and hell must be like, all wrapped into one experience. Days where you smell faintly of vomit, poop and seven cups of coffee. That, too, was hard.

These days I’m trying to juggle running a business from home and coordinating everything that goes into running a family. Up and running at 5:30 a.m., out of the house by 7:15 a.m., back home for 30 minutes (enough time to maybe get a load of dishes done and scrape last night’s dinner from the stove), then back out for another drop-off. Then the work day starts. By 2:30 p.m., I’m back out the door for a few hours of pickups, dropping off for school activities and then home for two to three hours of homework and dinner. Once the kids are in bed, it is time for another round of my work day. I typically fall into bed around 11 p.m. Some days are pretty dang hard.

It doesn’t matter where you work — at home, in an office, with your children, taking care of your spouse. We are all working. And it is hard. Life is hard. But what makes it worse is this need for women to attack other women for the effort they are making.

Do me a favor today. Tell another woman that she is doing a great job. It doesn’t matter what she is doing. Just give her a pat on the back. Chances are, no matter who she is, she hasn’t had one in a while.

I personally want to tell each and every one of you that I am proud of you as a woman. You are doing a great job, whatever that job may be, because we all have one.

MOLLY ORR

LAS VEGAS

The writer is owner of Molly O Designs.

Doesn’t understand

To the editor:

I agree with Hilary Rosen, who said in response to Mitt Romney invoking his wife’s name on economic policy: “Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life.” This was cast as an insult to stay-at-home moms.

But how many stay-at-home moms have husbands who make $21 million? The Romneys have several mansions. Do you think that Ann Romney does the house work in these homes?

I don’t think that Ms. Rosen was suggesting that Ann Romney was a bad mother, just that there were servants to care for their homes and nannies to look after their children. Mitt Romney does not understand the needs of women.

Richard J. Mundy

Las Vegas