During Politico’s “Women Rule” event this morning, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi joined her daughter Alexandra on stage to discuss her former duties as a full-time mom and eventual road to Congress.
Alexandra shared how her mom used to lead carpools, cook and clean all day and even win prizes for her cake baking. Being defined as domestic clearly made the powerful Minority Leader a bit squeamish.
“I was a 50s teenager, I wasn’t a 50s housewife.”
Despite Pelosi trying to distance herself from her former role, she did in fact do motherly things. Then, she "got a life."
The Minority Leader explained how when she was 46-years-old, she approached her daughter about running for Congress, to which the latter responded, “Mother, get a life.”
Perhaps realizing she and her daughter just basically wrote off stay-at-home moms as worthless, Pelosi backtracked by stating, “I mean I had a life, but I had another life by running for Congress.”
Alexandra nonetheless continued bragging about how her mom gave up some of her domestic duties as she pursued politics.
“She stopped cooking before all the other moms did […] There were pieces of evidences she was moving on with her life. Now she has a life that’s all-consuming.”
The Minority Leader insisted mothers today should get assistance like she did when she was struggling to raise five kids, “borrow money from a bank, get help.”
Yes, child care is hard, but what about Michelle Duggar? She and husband Jim Bob have 19 Kids and Counting and zero nannies. Clearly, Mrs. Duggar deems it worth the effort to be full-time mom to her precious little ones.
Based on her earlier comments, one of Pelosi's final statements may also rub full-time moms the wrong way.
“Here’s what I would say: do not ever underestimate the quality of the time you spend with your family as part of your career. It’s one of the hardest jobs in the world.”
Yes, as part of your career. Just don’t make it your whole career, or else you “won’t have a life.”