AURORA – Apparently some women, or at least the women I know, were greatly offended by some of the comments Mitt Romney made in the second presidential debate earlier this week.
I can’t speak for them.
However, I was astounded by what Romney had to say. I bet many other men were also miffed at Mitt. Here’s what Romney said:
“… if you’re going to have women in the workforce … sometimes you need to be more flexible. My chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school. She said, ‘I can’t be here until 7 or 8 o’clock at night. I need to be able to get home at 5 o’clock so I can be there for making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home from school.’ ”
What bleapin’ black-and-white bygone era does this presidential candidate dwell in?
Hey Mitt: I just sent a kid off to college. For 18 years, I, for the most part, made dinner. I did most of the grocery shopping and a lot of the laundry. I changed diapers. When he was young, I often picked my son up from daycare, from grade school, middle school and high school. I helped teach him to read and to cook. For a decade when my mom lived nearby I was happily part of the sandwich generation … and I don’t mean corned beef.
No brag, just fact. It’s what PARENTS do these days.
In our case, both my wife and I worked full time and shared duties. I don’t pretend that it wasn’t hard or that I was perfect. We created schedule flexibility because we had too. I had to educate my employers that I – man, father, husband – needed to be home to spend time with the family and cooking … or at least eating take-out or delivery food together. It was an essential adhesive that held our family together. It was a also a great joy.
Maybe the dudes in Mitt’s generation or social group leave all that icky family stuff to the women, and thus are unaware that the world has changed.
It’s their loss.
In the future, please don’t insult me or the millions of guys in America just like me. If men are going to be in the workplace, you have to treat them with respect.
• John Lehndorff is the editor of Colorado Table in the Aurora Sentinel, Buckley Guardian and Life Science newspapers and web sites. For more Colorado food stories, visit Colorado Table: aurorasentinel.com/colorado-table. Contact him at jlehndorff@aurorasentinel.com. John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles which airs 8:25 a.m. Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, 1390 AM, and KGNU.org.
