Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mike, that's awfully nice of you.  Believe me, I’d be very happy to work for you as your representative were you living in my district, but that’s not going to happen for a while.  And not just because you’re in Missouri and I’m in Michigan…

I'm being realistic about what running for public office entails; it's an 80-hour a week job at a minimum if it's done right.  However…my spouse is an executive who travels 3 to 5 days a week.  My kids are at an age where they are involved in one intramural activity or maybe one lesson (swimming, music) a week.  EACH.  One kid is manageable, but two?  that's a full-time job right there, shuttling kids around and making sure all the I's are dotted and T's crossed. 

This week alone I’ve got to attend a meeting for parents of children being tested for the gifted program; there will be at least three nights I’m going to have to be here to coach on homework and another night we’re going to have to visit the library.  There is a parent-child volleyball game to end my daughter’s season tomorrow night.  All this and my son isn’t yet in a sport or a class of any kind at this time.  Thank goodness neither of them have a birthday this month for which I would have to bake – although I do need to bake something for the parent-teacher fundraiser this weekend.  (It’s that or give money; they make more off the investment of baked goods and it costs me less, so baked goods it is.)

How could I reasonably spend two to four hours every evening walking through precincts, as well as two to four hours on the phone every day, every weekend at fundraising events or meeting with the campaign team – and still be there for the kids?

That’s just me talking, too, expressing my own concerns.  Can you imagine how the press and the opposition would hammer me if they thought my school-age kids were shorted on time with parents?  I’d be crucified.  Think about it: this is one major reason why female candidates of childbearing age are few and far between.  Our society still expects women to bear the bigger burden of parenting.  I know that our Governor Granholm can hold public office while juggling school-age children only because her spouse is the at-home parent.  That’s not an option in this household and it’s not in a majority of households across this country (at least not while women only earn 70 to 80 percent what men earn).

When the time comes, if I decide I would be a better candidate than the next person running for office, I’ll want to be able to talk about family values and not have somebody bashing me for being an inaccessible parent.  I want to be able to talk with some degree of knowledge about the issues of parents, too; I might be better prepared to tackle that if I’ve survived getting a kid to and into high school. 

The day will come when my kids are able to manage most of their daily routine on their own; there will come a day when they want me out of their hair and are itching for greater personal autonomy.  That’ll be the day when I will have to reconsider the concept of running for office.  I figure that will be about five years from now, when my daughter gets her driver’s license.

Until then, I’m going to remain behind the camera and behind the membership and bake sale table;  I’ll stay out of sight with the rest of the crew that are licking envelopes and sorting through voter records and phone banking.  I’ll just be one of the strategy team, a member of the policy board, a committee member, doing my part invisibly for democracy.

Besides, would it really hurt if a neophyte political activist spent a little time learning the ropes before asking others to stick their necks out for them?  I think it might be valuable to develop some cred and hone my chops with the party before I ask them to give me cash for a campaign.  I’ve only been a local party member for four months now, after all.  I suspect somebody might think I was rushing things a bit if I stepped up to the plate now.

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