So, Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau needs more staff to take care of her three young children while she gallivants around, working for charities that tackle issues like eating disorders, domestic abuse, at-risk mothers, and global poverty while also serving as the wife of the Prime Minister in a public and ambassadorial role.
We’re all busy, Sophie! Why can’t you do what the rest of us do and suck it up? I know women who work two jobs and leave their kids with the old lady down the street who lets them watch TV all day and feeds them nothing but Nutella and Lipton Noodle soup. Oh no, wait, that’s a repressed memory from my own childhood. Well, I know professional women with demanding careers who completely overwork their nannies, making them care for the children day and night and keep on top of the housework. Or some of us take our own parents for granted, leaving our kids with their aging grandparents, day in and day out. How about that, huh? It’s not unheard of to just leave the kids at home with their tween sibling and a Netflix account, either. Isn’t that why they invented the microwave?
I’m not saying you’re being unreasonable, I’m just saying: Why don’t you do what I do?
Like yesterday, for example.
7 – 8 a.m. A frantic flurry of getting the kids up, dressed, fed, lunches packed, hair re-braided, and off to school.
8 – 9 a.m. Guzzle coffee, catch up on emails, social media, news.
9 – 10 a.m. Shower, including washing my hair and combing it out for lice and/or nits because that’s been going around the kindergarten class and I simply WILL NOT have that, so the new policy is everyone gets combed out on weekly basis until further notice, lice or no lice. I also shaved my legs even though it’s not my anniversary and rummaged for clean and presentable clothes, did my makeup and packed a work bag.
10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Drive all the way across town for a quick-but-useful work-related event and then all the way back again.
12:30 – 1 p.m. Drop by the school to pick up and pay for the kindergarten painting I bid for at the school art gallery/silent action. Seriously? Nobody else wanted to bid on it? I can hardly believe my good luck.
1 – 3 p.m. Hastily write this blog post, publish and share it as I dash out the door with a typo (since corrected) in the title again.
3 – 7 p.m. Assorted parenting: pick up the kids, bring them home, feed and water them, homework, piano practice, chop! chop! chop!, dinner prep, chop! chop! chop!, feed them for bazillionth time, tag in the hubs and rush out the door to get a kid to tutoring.
7 – 8 p.m. Bliss! Hang out at a coffee shop while the kid’s at tutoring. Okay, fine, I sketched out the outline for this blog post during that time.
8 – god only knows, was it 11 p.m.? Bed time. Really, more snacks? Wtf, kids. Bedtime, I mean it this time. Clean the kitchen, lunch and breakfast prep, throw some clothes in the washer but forget to move them in the dryer to make tomorrow extra special, generally burn out and then lie in bed tossing and turning because apparently this is what happens now.
Of course, here’s what I didn’t get around to doing:
- Any work on personal, long-term projects
- Pitching stories so I can continue to have a stream of paid work
- Long over-due invoicing and assorted admin work
- Catching up on dozens of semi-finished blog posts I have in the works
- Any housework beyond the kitchen
- Decluttering my office and the rest of the house (Bahahaha, I need to do this so bad but it can never be the priority.)
But, it’s okay! Because I can suck it up like everyone else. I hear if you wake up at 5am, you can squeeze a few more tasks into the day. I’m gonna try that!
What’s wrong, SGT, are you too good to wake up at 5am?
Okay, never mind. I’m hearing that she’s expected to have clean hair, shaved legs, and makeup on every day. Holy crap. Get this woman some more staff.
16 replies on “Hey, Sophie! Check out what I can get done with three kids”
Rebecca, it sounds like you and I have similar lives/jobs and yes, my day sounds similar to yours. I had a feeling this is where you were going with this and I agree. If she’s expected (officially or unofficially) to look more than presentable, attend events, do her own thing, and do all the mom/wife/whatever crap, that’s too much for anyone to do without things falling through the cracks. Get real, right?
Thank you for getting it, Eileen!
She can have more staff, just don’t bill the taxpayer for it. Have all the staff you want then… (sigh)
Well, we do expect her to fulfill her role as a dignitary without getting a salary, don’t we? The least we can do is provide her with some support staff.
Gosh – How did Laureen Harper ever manage without whining?? And she didn’t even have her parents along for support on trips she & her PM husband went on.
Because Laureen Harper was kept under lock and key so no need.
Actually, Laureen was NOT kept under lock & key. If you bothered finding out anything about her, you would see that she did a lot of good work – unpaid- and still continues to help less fortunate. Didn’t see Sophie Gregoire Trudeau helping the people in the Fort McMurray fires- Laureen pitched in with others to help- doing physical work – without making a big deal over it.
Just because she didn’t choose to be a show off, doesn’t mean that she was cloistered.
I never voted for her to be the first lady.
She is supporting hewr husband’s liberal persona…not my job to pay for it.
They have lots of money, if she wants to be a media whore- her choice- let her pay for it.
She’s taking herself too seriously…wants to be another Michelle Obama. Will we start seeing her in a Real Housewives of Ottawa series?
Sorry – but she has to learn that it’s not taxpayers’ place to pay for her fame quest. If she wants to make all kinds of public appearances instead of being a real mother to her kids, perhaps she should charge those want her to appear at their functions, a fee. Like hubby used to. Good money in it.
Wow. You just insulted every working mother out there. “If she wants to make all kinds of public appearances instead of being a real mother to her kids…” Thanks for setting women back.
As First Lady, it is your job to make public appearances and do public speaking. What makes you think she isn’t charging them?
Most working mothers do not have two full time nannies working for them.
Or their household staff, nannies and rent paid for them. Not to mention free travel, for not only her- but her parents as well.
When does she see the kids she brought into the world, besides when she trots them around for display.
She isn’t a “First Lady”. – Athough the Turdeaus really seem to want to appear as American as possible, and perhaps are hoping to “keep up with the Obamas”, our PMs wives have never been called First Ladies.
None of the other PM’s wives needed extra help. She is an accessory to her husband’s political profile, not an ambassador of any sort.
Canada is nowhere as large in population as the U.S., so perhaps she should scale things back to reflect that.
What is this, junior high? What a bunch of catty sneering in the “which of us is more hard done-by” contest.
I think the point is her husband specifically campaigned on the point that families like his don’t need government money to pay for childcare, they should pay themselves. he even said he was giving back his childcare benefit to charity if elected. hmm 2 nannies later, and uh he knows says he is busy and deserves it. Well everyone I know is busy and deserves….hypocritical is my beef. i don’t care if she gets help or not but he can afford it, he make over $300,000 and has a lot of inheritance.
Laureen Harper was an extraordinary volunteer while she was Mrs. PM, as all the organizations she helped know.
She is a dynamic supporter and recruiter, a mobilizer of volunteers and a passionate promoter of her causes.
Most people don’t know that about her and are surprised.
Throughout her time in Ottawa, she made a massive contribution to the National Arts Centre,
Humane Societies across the country,
Anti-bullying initiatives with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection,
the Red Cross,
True Patriot Love and
Youth mental-health programs.
According to Valerie Pringle
“As co-chair of the Trans Canada Trail (TCT) Foundation, I have had the privilege of watching Laureen in action.
We were extremely fortunate to have her take on the role of honorary campaign chair as we worked to connect the iconic 24,000-kilometre national recreational trail from coast to coast to coast in time for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 (the greatest project ever).
It is a cause close to Laureen’s heart. She walked the TCT in Ottawa almost every day, hikes regularly and loves the outdoors.
She owns a small piece of land outside Calgary and plans to build a small house there some day and live right on the TCT.
Laureen came to trail openings and announcements, hosted donors at 24 Sussex and gave them a private tour of the Parliament Buildings (with great stories) and attended fundraising events, and most potential donors didn’t know what hit them.
She even lobbied to have the driveway of 24 Sussex named an honorary part of the Trans Canada Trail.
She is friendly, funny, feisty and fearless.
She is utterly without pretension.
I have hiked with her and other TCT supporters on the Laura Secord Legacy Trail in Niagara, the gorgeous trails in Charlevoix and the Sleeping Giant Trail near Thunder Bay.
She is always energetic, upbeat (despite mosquitoes, rain, excessive heat), takes beautiful photographs and makes sure we always have a supply of salted caramels from the kitchen at 24 Sussex.
When I tell people about Laureen, they usually say they have no strong sense of her.
She has not taken a high “first lady” profile and most Canadians don’t know much about her.
She has worked very hard in the background on projects that she cares about. She is completely down-to-earth and tells very funny stories about herself, such as the time she decided that for the first time in her married life, she needed a matching bedroom set in her house in Calgary.
She bought one and assembled it herself, saying she comes from a long line of contractors, pipefitters and welders and should be able to figure it out.
The bed collapsed with her and the Prime Minister in it and she thought that was hilarious.
She is crazy about Charlie, her pet chinchilla, and has endless pictures of him on her phone.
She is a shameless promoter of all things Canadian and never stopped plugging them, whether it was Ron White shoes to the spouses at the G20 or Lankaaster cheese (supreme global cheese winner) to a point where you could no longer find it in any store.
Laureen has done a great job on so many worthwhile Canadian projects and deserves our thanks.
Brava Laureen.”
Shame that Sophie wouldn’t take a page out of Laureen’s book.
She also had 2 nannies and a governess to help her. Most people don’t realize that either.
blahblahblah
Laureen didn’t have 3 small kids…she had 2 teenagers. Big difff.
I cannot even begin to express my amazement at the controversy this whole non-issue has brought up. The woman has three kids. Three YOUNG kids. Do any of us with three young kids not feel like we’re teetering on the edge of crazy at least half the time? Is it that foreign of an experience for an intelligent, well-spoken woman to admit that raising young children and being expected to ANYTHING else at the same time is really freaking hard?! Do I think Sophie probably doesn’t know how hard it is for those of us who have zero help, a full time job, and three kids under the age of five? Yeah, she probably can’t put herself in my shoes, but as you say, jeez, she has to shower every single day, so I definitely can’t say I have her life experience either! But seriously, who cares? If I was in a position to ask for help, if any mom was in a position to ask for help and realistically expect to get it, oh my god, wouldn’t we all in a heartbeat??? I don’t know, I guess I’m just surprised by all the furor because I’m too busy changing diapers and wiping placemats that the people getting really worked up about this must be involved in discourse that is over my head… (Seriously, I think you’re onto something, how much food can kids eat in the course of a day – I can never understand how it’s snack time – again!) :)
And just for the record Rebecca, you COULD get up at 5am every morning with your early riser kid like I do, but you’d spend that time wishing you were still in bed and swearing you’re going to use the time productively and getting absolutely nothing done, like I do! ;)