Palin and Parenting
There has been a lot of excitement about Sarah Palin recently. I watched her speech on YouTube last night, and it seems now we have a fight on our hands. The republicans finally have found someone who could energise their conservative base, and yet appeal to the idea of change.
During the speech, like a true politician, she trooped out her entire family and used their background to bolster her political credentials. This is the story of what they call America. Small-town white girl with solid upbringing, marrying childhood sweetheart, with strong Christian values (she elected to keep her fifth son, who has Down’s syndrome.
Good so far.
Yet, Penelope Trunk’s latest blog about Palin’s priorities strikes a chord with me. Call me a male chauvnist, but I find it hard to understand how she is going to be able to cope with being the VP of the US of A without neglecting her family. The last thing her family needs now is a Mom that is absent. Her third daughter just went through a teenage pregnancy, her fifth son needs a lot of attention. Heck, her husband has now quit his job to stay at home to look after the kids. The eldest one is going to Iraq in a few weeks, while the fourth daughter is only 7 and still schooling. Wow, and she’s going to juggle all of this with being a VP? I’m skeptical, but I really hope it works out for them.
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2008/09/04/palins-children-should-take-priority-over-being-vice-president/
Trunk’s previous blog posting about CEOs and Philip Broughton’s “What I learned at Harvard Business school” also makes this point. Philip describes how CEOs come and talk about their successes to HBS students, and often, they say their biggest regret is not spending enough time with the family, and not getting to know their sons/daughters. The ironic thing is while the HBS students agree and subscribe to the work-life balance philosophy, they continue to seek the jobs that run counter to the thinking. Mammon wins hands-down against in their career decision.
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/06/20/hold-ceos-accountable-for-their-bad-parenting/
Its interesting. No one I know would say that Work-Life balance is not important. In fact, everywhere and everyone whom I have worked for so far subscribes to the philiosophy. Practicing what they preach is another matter altogether. Why? A friend chided me for taking up this job, after I had shared with him my concerns about the travel demands.
Kaif: “I couldn’t have turned this job down. They (HR dept) sent me. I didn’t have a choice.”
Friend: “But you do have a choice. YOu could have said No.”
Kaif: “Nope, I didn’t have a choice. They just told me where to interview and go and that was it. I even told the interviewer that I didn’t want to travel much.”
Friend: “But you still could have said No isn’t it”
He was right. I might inadvertently fallen in the same trap myself.
