Alright, I get the meaning behind International Women's day and I identify as a feminist, and want to support women and minority-owned businesses when I can. And if I had the option to take the day off from my unpaid job as a stay at home mom, I'd be like, hell yea! But anyway, I had some thoughts throughout the day about the "guidelines" that made it not possible for me to participate. The guidelines were:
1. Women take the day off, from paid and unpaid labor
As a stay at home mom, how the hell am I supposed to take the day off? That shit's all unpaid. What was I supposed to do with Lachlan all day? Let him eat dog food and rocks? Find his own way down the stairs safely? What was I supposed to do all day myself while honoring this guideline, just sit there and knit? That sounds fucking awesome actually, but is wasn't a possibility. Maybe I should've gone into Denver with him and joined the silent protest?
And then I heard on the news there were some schools around the country that closed in anticipation of this day, but if I were lucky enough to have a paying job, I certainly wouldn't want to risk my employment there by skipping out on a work day. In my opinion, this was only something women with the privilege of having personal/sick leave from their jobs could do and not have to worry about the consequences (I.E. getting fired).
2. Avoid shopping for one day (with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses)
Another thing with being home with my kid all day, is we go through milk and food like crazy. Lachlan was close to running out of whole milk and I almost went out to Target to pick some up for him (I'm going to go today instead). But if I really needed some yesterday, was I supposed to look up the ownership information of Target before I went to make sure it was owned by a woman or a minority? And if it wasn't, should my kid have gone without milk? No. Maybe search for a store nearby that was women or minority-owned? No time for that!
3. Wear RED in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman
I don't own anything red except 2 plaid shirts from Old Navy. But it was unseasonably warm out so I didn't want to wear them. Plus, I didn't run into any other humans yesterday so I suppose I could've just lied and said I did wear red and no one would've known any better ;)
So yea, even though I'm being a smartass, I totally support the concept behind International Women's Day, to support women-owned businesses and go on strike at your own job so others can see just how much women really are needed and how much they get done, to take control of power in this way. But I couldn't have participated even if I wanted to. So I appreciate the women who did strike because it was, in a way, for me and other women like me.
...Wait...women like me? So, women who are fortunate to be a stay at home mom in the first place? Man I could keep digging and picking more and more into this. This national holiday has me all sorts of confused now!
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