23.02.12

Parents are skilled managers with extensive experience meeting extreme demands under pressure. They are responsible for creating and overseeing budgets, disciplinary policies, safety protocols, health-care procedures, educational assessments and real estate portfolios. They also tend to be deeply passionate about their jobs.

Sounds like a great resume, no?

Well, no. For the most part, the job of raising children competes with office-based work. Many of us downplay or avoid the subject of child-rearing when we’re interviewing or otherwise trying to curry professional favor.

Now comes Michele Bachmann . In trying to win the highest office in the land, she’s redefining the relationship between work and family. On the campaign trail she makes the case that her parenting experience makes her more qualified to be president.

The Post’s Melinda Henneberger last week wrote this about Bachmann :

“In an interview between Iowa campaign events, she says that what she offers voters above all, in drawing on her experience as a parent, is the ability ‘to know when to say no, and that’s tremendously applicable’ in a country that she says must be forced to stop ‘overindulging.

Source: Washington Post (blog)