Parenting

Chelsea Shamed For Missing 1st Day Of Preschool Because The World Is A Sexist Garbage Dump

by Maria Guido
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
Image via Getty Images/ Fox 38 Facebook screenshot

Article wonders why Chelsea had to miss her daughter’s first day of school and also why Hillary isn’t babysitting

Being a woman in 2016 should be easier than this. Every day there’s at least one moment where we want to hurl our computers through a window, because the sexist coverage of this election does not stop. But we may have hit the motherlode today, with an article that laments Chelsea Clinton — a working mom — missing her daughter’s first day of preschool. The article also wonders why her mom, CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, isn’t at home babysitting.

“It takes a village! Chelsea Clinton’s husband Marc and their nanny take Charlotte to her first day of preschool – which she misses to campaign for her sick mom,” writes the Daily Mail, in an article that just may be one of the most sexist pieces of garbage you’ve ever read. And that’s saying a lot. A lot.

First of all, a father isn’t a member of “the village.” He’s a father — just as capable of handling dropping his kid off at preschool as mom. The article only gets worse after that headline. It actually insinuates that Hillary should be watching her infant grandchild during the drop off. Can you imagine the same being said for Trump and his grandkids? No, you can’t. Because he’s actually admitted that he didn’t even raise his own children. But no one cares about that. He’s a man, entitled to throw money at his kids and call it a day.

Image via Daily Mail

“Charlotte, who will turn two at the end of the month, was seen heading to her Manhattan school in a stroller being pushed by her nanny while her father Marc Mezvinsky was on his phone,” the article reads. She’s turning two at the end of the month? Okay, so she’s going to daycare. It’s her first day of daycare. Big whoop. “Her mother could not be there for the big day however because she was on the campaign trail for her mother in North Carolina,” garbage continues. “Grandma Hillary also missed Charlotte’s first day of school as she was recovering from pneumonia at her home in nearby Chappaqua.” In case you missed it in the bullet points, Grandma Hillary was “unable to join Charlotte or watch baby Aidan.”

Fox 32 Chicago decided to get in on the shaming this morning, and asked its readers this:

“SOUND OFF… Should Chelsea Clinton have been there for her daughters first day? Or is it acceptable for one parent to drop the child off?” What planet are we on? How many households have families where both parents can make it to school drop off? That’s not even really a thing. The whole purpose of this article and and subsequent coverage is to remind women that they are somehow going against nature by not being a mom first, all the time.

That message is exhausting. And it’s bullshit.

Hillary Clinton is running for the office of President of the United States. We don’t need to be constantly reminded that she’s a grandma — especially one who’s expected to babysit. Imagine these sentences written about any male candidate in the history of ever. You can’t. It hasn’t happened. It would never happen.

Here’s what happened this morning: a father took his kid to preschool. The end. This is not news. What it is, is a harmful addition to the constant sexist message women are sent: your “job” will never be as important as your role as a mother — and if you try to do both you will always be failing.

Well, fuck that. We’ll keep calling these messages out because they are simply not true. And we don’t have to stand for it anymore.

We’re about to have a female POTUS, after all. Take that, patriarchy.

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