Palin Comparison

This column isn't about the Republican v-p pick ... but 5 kids?!

by Lisa Van Dusen

It's an occupational hazard these days that if you mention the name of the Republican candidate for vice-president of the United States in the course of an average column, you're going to be bombarded by dozens of e-reasons to regret it.

In the 24 hours after the last piece I wrote about -- let's call her Sandra Balin -- I was accused of being a socialist, a communist, a fascist, a feminist, an anti-feminist, a liberal, an elitist and, best of all, jealous.

(Republican John McCain wanted me first but I was deemed overqualified to be leader of the free world because of my elitist refusal to drop my "ing"s).

When I first heard weeks ago that one of the dark horse candidates for McCain's running mate was the governor of Alaska and that she had five kids, I, like a lot of political junkies who follow these things with an obsessive eye to even distant specks on the political horizon, had never heard of her.

I just assumed Sandra Balin was in her 60s and that her children were mostly grown because, as a slacker mom who stayed at home for seven years with one daughter, it never crossed my mind that any woman with that many young children and in full possession of her senses would even contemplate being a governor.

I believe women should have the freedom to make their own choices, whether that means being a governor, an at-home mom, a working mom, or a mom period. So, I would never criticize Sandra Balin for choosing to work and raise children at the same time.

But like a lot of women and a lot of working mothers, I just genuinely wonder how Sandra Balin swings it with that many kids and with that job.

Being the mother of five children means you're surrounded by people all day long asking you questions. So does being a governor, only the people are taller, they have fewer questions about the location of the juice boxes and more of their questions arrive by BlackBerry.

When women ask how Sandra Balin does it, they know that even with one or two or three kids, there are awful moments when all the prioritizing goes out the window and one role or the other suddenly demands an exclusive commitment (limb broken in playground accident vs. boardroom presentation in 10 minutes). A lot of women who had the choice have changed jobs or traded ambition for peace of mind to avoid those moments.

Her answer to Charlie Gibson about how she does it was, "The same way the other governors have done it when they've either had a baby in office or raised a family. Granted, they're men, but do it the same way that they do it." According to the National Governor's Association Web site, the only current governors, other than the Mormon governor of Utah, who have more than four children are Togiola Tulafono, the governor of American Samoa and Benigno Fitial, governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, each of whom has six.

(We don't really know how they do it because they haven't done Meet The Press lately, either).

If Sandra Balin becomes vice-president, she'll have even fewer models to cite. But having seen a video of her recently holding her baby, Trig, in one arm while BlackBerrying with the other hand, I'd say never underestimate her ability to juggle. Just don't ask her how she does it.