Piper, Please Don’t Drop Him

I admire Sarah Palin very much, she sticks to her beliefs and is true to her convictions despite criticisum from people who only wish they had her courage. As for private mothering and public mothering, I believe we all have to admit to dealing with situations involving our children in public differently than we do in private. I remember once when my daughter, age about 5, was in the grocery store with me, she was pulling things off the shelves, and in general, behaving bratty; after many attempts to get her to behave, without success, I finally reached over and pinched her on the upper arm, just enought to let her know her behavior was not acceptable and was slowing my shopping; She let out a screeching yell, and said "Stop pinching me!" Of course, everyone within hearing distance, which probably included the parking lot, turned our way to see what all the fuss was about. I was mortified, and was sure they thought I was a terrible mom, which was probably my daughter's intent. I got even when we finally got home by refusing to allow her to play with any of her favorite toys, and serving her squash with dinner. She still hates squash. .

Sarah Palin is a smart, classy, lady, who also happens to be a wife, mother, sister, daughter, cousin, and soon to be grandmother. I saw nothing wrong with her children being "on the road" with her. What an education, besides the fact of hanging with your Mom (and other members of the family, whether it be Dad, grandparents, siblings, etc.) Sarah is a fabulous role-model.
It is sad that people post hateful things against her... it says more about the writer than it says about Sarah.

I see nothing wrong with Piper holding her baby brother at home or on national TV. When you have a a large family, everyone helps out. It is not uncommon for older siblings to take care of younger siblings. As the oldest child in my own family, I realize what my duties are to help my parents and no one has to tell me to take care of them.
How come we are always looking/waiting for bad things to happen?

I'm still more than a little disturbed by Sarah Palin's family and how she uses them as political props at campaign appearances. Don't these children have to go to school or do homework like Barack Obama's kids? Aren't they kept out and up awfully late for children? And how come we don't see Sarah interacting with her offspring? Every time they appear in public, it seems the older siblings are pulling time tending the younger ones. I have yet to see her hold her baby.

I was thinking the exact same thing after the debate! And the rest of your article was totally on the mark. Keep up the great work!

well...at least Miss Deveny is such an idiot that nobody reads her. How does someone like her get a job writing? Shouldn't a writer be able to think?


Miss Deveny will probably send her daughter of as Hillary Clinton on Halloween. Maybe she can send a neighborhood boy--and I certainly hope Miss Deveney can find a person from a broken family, since she has complained that there are not ENOUGH divorces so her daughter feels isolated--as Bill Clinton, so the kids can be "liars in a loveless fake marriage".

Thank you Ms. Deveny for this article. I was watching and thinking am i the only one who find this akward. I mean, yes, maybe, just maybe, I would let 7 year old to hold my son but I wont take my eyes from them for a second. I do not think I would be distracted by TV cameras. Ms. Sarah Palin turned her back to them! Her daughter with baby brother ih her arms was trying to catch with her. I was scared and I cannot believe there was - till now- nobody from the press to point that out. One more time: there are things that do not change regarding if camera is on or off.

Alexander

I am sorry, this article is bizarre.

And no, not all parents behave differently depending on the setting. We strive to remain consistent with our girls and so far it seems to have worked. They know they are expected to behave whether in public or private and will be punished in both settings if they get wild. It is hard enough for a young kid to behave. Why would you want to confuse them with two different standards,depending on whether people were looking? And why would you passively condone poor behavior in public-it will just encourage further poor behavior next time you take them out. And really, what does this have to do with Piper holding her brother?

Gee. I'm always worried when I see Piper carrying him too. But I'm ONLY worried that she'll drop him. I think she's too little to be carrying the baby. How do I know this? When I was about 6, my aunt had her third baby, my cousin Jodie. The family came to visit us when Jodie was about six months old. I carried on like a maniac for days in my quest to hold the baby, but was told I 'was too little'. Finally, unable to further tolerate my rantings, I was granted access to the infant. I was put way far back on a bed and, surrounded by my mother, aunt and grandmother, had the baby put in my arms. Who then promptly rolled out and fell onto the hardwood floor. It was the first and only time in my life my aunt and grandmother yelled at me (see, I'm still traumatized 45 years later). So....Sarah, please don't let Piper hold the baby...but not for the reasons in this
article. Thanks. P.S. Jodie was/is fine.

oops...

Scout is a wonderful kid and reflects well on Governor Palin. I loathe what Palin has done to our country in such a short time, but her love for Scout makes me realize that while Palin will do anything to get noticed, she is a loving person. Unfortunately, the public Palin is a Bill Clinton Class Pathological liar who has added another level of degeneracy to our Sickness Unto Death entrapped Political Discourse.


But just as Deveny manages to feel sorry for herself because there are not as many divorces as she has been promised, just as Deveny has swooned stupidly adding nothing to Sarah-mania and then hidden behind her Cone of Silence, just as there are so many signs and so much evidence that Deveny is the Sarah Palin of mommy writers, Deveny tops herself by being boring and stupid about a very interesting 7 year old to tell us something more about her boring life.

Mediocrity and stupidity and banality all in one package: Kathleen Deveny. Don't drop anything interesting into your column, Ms Deveny, and keep exploiting your mommy-hood for a living.

It is sad to read what passes for culture and literacy in 2008. Deveny wouldn???t be the weekend columnist on any self-respecting Pennysaver.

Ms. Deveny is an embarrassingly inept writer. Her "Gee, I am just a mom from Brooklyn" voice is grating and she cannot locate a thesis sentence because she cannot locate an idea.

Deveny has gone from joining in the "Wow! A Governor who drinks Red Bull!" embarrassing adulation of Palin when everyone else loved her to this prose version of doggerel.


Scout is the best thing about Sarah Palin, and I think Palin is a disatser

It

Palin will be well served after the election. She can help her children. I hope the other will not fall into the problems like the others, for example she will not finish her high school education on time. If she were to become Vice President this could further destroy her family.

No, we DON'T all behave differently with our kids in public than we do in private. Some of us manage to be consistent in both places.

I suspect Palin is one of the more consistent mothers; I think she treats her children the same privately as she does publicly - as props, to stroke her ego.

In public, it seems Sarah Palin is oblivious to everything except the adoring crowds and the news cameras and her own celebrity. Her own children are like fashion accessories or props in the prototypical all-American family image she wishes to convey. She seems to replace lessons in values, such as the value of a good education, and staying in school, and female earning power, and female independence, with lessons in beauty pageant walk, wave, and smile. Piper seems to have learned her lessons well, she???s adorable, charismatic, and a veritable, pathological camera hound, but shouldn???t she be in school? Bristol should have been taught to nurture her own ambition and aim for the best colleges in the country and to take every opportunity to maximize her earning potential ??? Bristol should have been taught that she might someday eclipse her mother in power and prestige if she were her own woman. But it seems like the children were not taught their potential to eclipse their mother, but only to augment their mother. It seems they were only taught to take advantage of the State of Alaska, and to exploit the powers of the governorship, and to manufacture official standing to claim business and travel expenses and stays at luxury hotels and binge shopping trips at high-end department stores where disdain for common folk hangs heavy in the air and where the sales people would just as soon spit on you as give you the time of day.

Kathleen, I remember when you were Piper's age here in Minneapolis. I believe you were dating boys. Now we are afraid to let our children make decisions for themselves or let them go to the corner store alone.
Piper seems like a wonderful child. A sister who will make sure her brother Trig finds a good friend when he gets older. Actually, I would be more worried about the children used in political ads; how sick is that?

Kathleen, I remember when you were Piper's age here in Minneapolis. I believe you were dating boys. Now we are afraid to let our children make decisions for themselves or let them go to the corner store alone.
Piper seems like a wonderful child. A sister who will make sure her brother Trig finds a good friend when he gets older. Actually, I would be more worried about the children used in political ads; how sick is that?

"A former Newsweek reporter admitted in an article this week that he has no objectivity and imagined disabling Rudy Giuliani so he wouldn't run in the presidential primary race last year.
Michael Hastings wrote in GQ magazine that he had a "recurring fantasy" that he could somehow stop the former New York City mayor in his tracks.
"I quickly realized Rudy was a maniac. I had a recurring fantasy in which I took him out during a press conference (it was nonlethal, just something that put him out of commission for a year or so), saving America from the horror of a President Giuliani. If that sounds like I had some trouble being 'objective,' I did. Objectivity is a fallacy," he said."

http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_7484&pageNum=2

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/55_say_media_bias_bigger_problem_than_campaign_cash

55% Say Media Bias Bigger Problem Than Campaign Cash

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2008/cyb20080819.asp

Pew Research finds Media Credibility Plummets, Just 30% Believe 'Most Trusted' CNN

............................ One of the reasons Palin was brought into the "Maverick" McCain Campaign is because she has kids to help improve the drab McCain visual image on television...........Too bad for McCain that Palin has also brought in so many items of negative baggage concerning her political past that does not look good at all to the American people no matter how many changes of fine clothes she has!!!!!!!!!!!!!