When I'm a mum, I'm not going to be one of those mums who has nannies. Actually, I might have nannies - never say never - but I'm not having someone else raise my kids.
I had the opportunity to be around my kids a lot. I guess I could have kept working, but I had them when I was 47. You only get to see all this stuff once. I just chose to work at home and watch them.
The mother who stays home instead of working sacrifices her aspirations and career to ensure that her child is well taken care of.
I had children very young. You go through a period of immense guilt about being a working mother.
An unmarried adult who cannot navigate the welfare system has no choice but to work, but a married working parent is constantly evaluating the relative merits of staying home with the kids versus bringing home that second paycheck.
But for me, I knew that if I had a baby, I would have to take care of that baby, and I wouldn't have been happy with a nanny taking care of my baby and walking into the room and having my child run across the room to another woman.
I didn't want my daughter brought up by nannies, and I didn't want her to feel I wasn't around.
Anyone who still supports George Bush would still let Michael Jackson babysit their kids.
I absolutely don't want to suggest that women are unreliable because we're mothers - on the contrary. But the question of who brings up the kids has a material effect on all women's careers.
There was no way I was going to have a baby and hand him over to a nanny.
Women may give lip service to wanting husbands who take on an equal role in raising children, but many will pull rank when an important decision, like how to discipline or what baby sitter to hire, has to be made.
I don't get that with the nannies. What's your point if you have a child and you aren't raising it?
I don't want to judge, but I've also met women who think it's cool to be out or away from their baby, and I don't get that.
Success, for me, is that if my son chooses to be a stay-at-home parent, he is cheered on for that decision. And if my daughter chooses to work outside the home and is successful, she's cheered on and supported.
I certainly know women who had children, quit their jobs, and still have full-time nannies. That's who these women are: Even to the detriment of their own relationship with their kids, they want to appear perfect Martha Stewart moms.
