![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eredien“Say what you want to say about me,” Palin said, “but I raised a combat vet. You can’t take that away from me.”
I truly don't understand what she's saying here. She raised a son who grew up to make his own decisions about which institutions and ideals to support. That's parenting in a nutshell. Does she want accolades for happening to be the mother of her son, because when her son was able to make his own decisions about which institutions and ideals to support, he decided to support institutions and ideals whose aims his mom happened to agree with?
If he'd decided to support an institution or ideal she did not agree with, would she then reject identical accolades from those who told her that she must be proud to have raised such a courageous, self-aware, self-sacrificing child, because the institution or ideal he decided to support was something she could not support?
Why does it seem like she wants to take credit for a decision her son made because she is his parent? It's not just Palin--my parents do this too, and I think a lot of parents do. If we make decisions that our parents agree with, they say that it's because they raised us right, and if we make decisions our parents disagree with, they not only say that they can't support our decision, but wonder where they went wrong raising us. It's natural for a parent to rejoice at the success of a child and be sad at their child's failures. But the measure of success of a parent as a parent must be composed of more than the parent's perception of what their child's successes or failures are, and the measure of success of a human being who has children must be composed of more than that human's perceived success or failure as a parent.
I truly don't understand what she's saying here. She raised a son who grew up to make his own decisions about which institutions and ideals to support. That's parenting in a nutshell. Does she want accolades for happening to be the mother of her son, because when her son was able to make his own decisions about which institutions and ideals to support, he decided to support institutions and ideals whose aims his mom happened to agree with?
If he'd decided to support an institution or ideal she did not agree with, would she then reject identical accolades from those who told her that she must be proud to have raised such a courageous, self-aware, self-sacrificing child, because the institution or ideal he decided to support was something she could not support?
Why does it seem like she wants to take credit for a decision her son made because she is his parent? It's not just Palin--my parents do this too, and I think a lot of parents do. If we make decisions that our parents agree with, they say that it's because they raised us right, and if we make decisions our parents disagree with, they not only say that they can't support our decision, but wonder where they went wrong raising us. It's natural for a parent to rejoice at the success of a child and be sad at their child's failures. But the measure of success of a parent as a parent must be composed of more than the parent's perception of what their child's successes or failures are, and the measure of success of a human being who has children must be composed of more than that human's perceived success or failure as a parent.
Tags:
(no subject)
29/8/10 20:40 (UTC)Which is not to say anybody ELSE should necessarily use the same judgement. I might congratulate her if she'd raised a son who became a peace activist, even if she herself felt unsatisfied with that.
(no subject)
29/8/10 22:47 (UTC)I needed to be clearer, there. I don't think it's bad for a person to be proud of raising the sort of child they wanted to raise: "It's natural for a parent to rejoice at the success of a child and be sad at their child's failures."
But I still think that "the measure of success of a human being who has children must be composed of more than that human's perceived success or failure as a parent." Congratulating yourself as a parent for raising a child that goes on to take actions you approved of is ok. But I feel that congratulating yourself in front of a crowd of tens of thousands of people for raising your son the way you wanted to raise him, and having tens of thousands of people congratulating you back for raising your son the way they and you think he should have been raised, is a little odd. When I think of that kind of sentiment being expressed in a group of any size, it seems to scale more to the wedding-day-toast-size group than the "mega rally" size group.
Continuing on to imply that unspecified people are trying to retroactively take away her pride in her having raised her son as she thought was right seems strange. How could such unspecified people remove such a thing, especially after the bulk of the raising has already been accomplished?
I might congratulate her if she'd raised a son who became a peace activist, even if she herself felt unsatisfied with that.
I don't disagree with you: "If he'd decided to support an institution or ideal she did not agree with, would she then reject identical accolades from those who told her that she must be proud to have raised such a courageous, self-aware, self-sacrificing child, because the institution or ideal he decided to support was something she could not support?"
(no subject)
30/8/10 12:39 (UTC)Of course, there *is* that inference to be made from the specific words she said, and if you're taking issue with her perpetuating the sort of mindset you're objecting to by using those words rather than others, regardless of what she actually means... well, I think I'd have to agree with you there. It's common, but it does mean more when someone with Palin's visibility says it on TV than when Sarah Q. Random from Podunk, Idaho says it to her family and friends.