This "multi-tasking" crap is...crap!

[Raven]

OK, time to expose this lie. I was a single parent. I raised a kid. I ran a City of 90,000, went to law school nights, practiced law in a big firm and had my own law firm. There is no such thing as "multi-tasking". There is such a thing as doing 5 things at once and not doing any of them as well as you would like to. There is such a thing as having to put what should be your first priority in second or third place to take care of the debris you have accumulated in your life. There is nothing pretty, sexy or smart about multi-tasking. For most women, it is a necessity and not one that they would choose if they had a choice.

Now I know things have changed in recent years but the men I have known did not multi-task. They didn't have to. The women in their lives...wives, secretaries...multi-tasked for them so that they could concentrate on their careers...their careers, not their families.

This adoration of multi-tasking is pure sexist bunk. Designed to keep women so scattered, preoccupied and exhausted that they will not achieve their potential.

I am a retired Queen of multi-tasking and I can tell you that whatever I achieved, whether it was raising a decent kid or having a decent career, was pure luck. Ask any young female associate in a law firm today who has or wants a family. She'll describe the double standard.

[SmileyRose]

1. k and r

perfectly put

[noel711]

2. I've lived that way for over 20 years..and I'm exhausted...

Hate it.

The meme that 'you can have it all' is a lie.
But we do what we must to do get by.

I work usually 6 to 7 days a week, many days are 12 hours or more.
I love my work.. usually. But I hate to hear the phone ring...
I dream of a quiet life, with just the essentials,
of being able to cook dinner every night,
visit with friends, take some car trips around the nation,
watch movies, read books, paint the house.

I'd love to retire early, but it ain't gonna happen.

Not because I feel impelled to buy luxuries,
but because I have to survive.
My dream is to pay off our debt before I die.

[WCGreen]

5. It's great for those TV folks who just sit around and demand

things from everyone around them.

They don't do reporting of any type, they just sit around and yack.

I said in another post that women are natural multi-taskers, it comes with being a mother. Men aren't.

[Olney Blue]

3. Great post, Raven. K and R.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Raven, you are brilliant.

I figured out this revelation quite by necessity after spending years of getting down on myself because I was not able to be a Super Mom, Wife, Wage Earner etc., etc. all at one time. I opted to be the best mom I could be, and be damn with everything else. Unfortunately, it was a solitary battle since everyone else who is still trapped by the Type A expectations don't really give you the time and patience to hear what you have to say.

[H2O Man]

6. Very good.

Nominated.

Though I can't speak for all men, I was a single father of two young boys for many years. Their mother had reached a point where she "needed to 'find herself'," which translated into focusing her energy on her career.

My sons were 3 and 5 at the time that our new lifestyle began. I was employed at a county mental health clinic. Although I had, previous to the first son's birth, worked two full-time jobs, I found that I had to decide where to focus. For me, the choice was easy: nothing would keep me from being the best father to those little fellows that I possibly could.

Even with the support of family and friends, I found that being a single parent took all the strength that I had. In the next few years, I only dated one person semi-seriously. But my primary focus was my sons. Eventually, I met the women who became my best friend and wife, and who was willing to commit to the often difficult job of being a step-parent.

Being a good parent is a responsibility that requires a good deal of sacrifice. I'm not in a position where I feel any need to judge Sarah Palin's parenting skills. What I am concerned about, however, is her attempting to force her agenda, which is a reflection of her religious values, on the rest of society. There are a lot of parents who are perfectly capable of raising their own children without the Palin family values. And there are many parents, single and otherwise, who do not need the ball & chain of those Palin family values to make their job more difficult.

[knitter4democracy]

7. I entirely agree.

I am that wife who multitasks so her husband can focus on his career, and I know how much work I have to do behind the scenes so that he can work his long and longer hours without worry. Granted, he doesn't always respect that, so we're having issues about it, but that doesn't diminish the amount of work I do.

There's no way Palin can run a state, keep tabs on her kids, and run for VP. No way. It would be a bit different if all of her kids were older and healthy, but they're not. She's got a daughter who really needs her right now, a husband who doesn't like not helping run things, huge state issues, and she's going to be far from home for most of it.

She has a special needs baby who will need her there when he has surgeries and need her when he gets sick and need her when he gets scared. He's only this age once, and she isn't going to be there at all. As for her husband covering for her (doing my job, basically), he's not going to be able to, either. He'll have his own campaigning and speechifying and interviews to do. Sure, they'll hire a nanny, paid for with GOP money, I'm sure, but will the nanny be the only one there for his surgeries or hospitalizations?

I'm all for working moms--we all work, just not all of us get paid. Moms who work outside of the home have massive decisions to make all the time, and they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. It's a terrible position to put people in. It's not like Palin's a normal working mom, though--how many working moms have two full-time jobs that require them to fly all over the entire US and be gone from home for weeks at a time? How many working moms have to be picture-perfect all day the next day and have their every word dissected, even if they were up all night with the baby? How many moms are training to know all about running the country and dealing with the press and talking with foreign leaders?

Palin can't do it all, and her family already shows that. She made the wrong decision here, and we need to make sure she doesn't get near the White House.

[femrap]

8. K and R

Multi-tasking is the Corporate lingo for making a woman do the job of 2 or 3 people who have been downsized. That's multi-tasking.

I also read that the only way one can multi-task is if one of the tasks has become very routine...say watching TV and paying one's bills. Or my favorite...walking, chewing gum, and still carrying a tune as dodging traffic!

[BurtWorm]

9. All right, but did you hunt caribou from a plane?

:crazy: