AT Fox News, we have this inspiring profile:

Heather Seeger is a staff sergeant in the Air Force, but when it comes to raising six children while her husband is deployed, she is commander-in-chief.

Seeger, a noncommissioned office who for 14 years has served in the Air Force, is in charge of production analysis for the 1st Maintenance Operations Squadron. When the 32-year-old is not at work overseeing maintenance of the military’s F-22 stealth fighter jets, she’s caring for her six children — ages 3 to 12 — while her husband is deployed in Japan.

The job is no easy task, says Seeger, but her skills learned in the military likely help in the home.

“It requires a lot of patience, organization and scheduling,” she told FoxNews.com.

Here is a more complete portrait at the U.S. Air Force website. We learn that Sgt. Seeger arrives home after picking up her children from school and day care, and after taking one child to tutoring with all the others in tow, at 6:30 p.m. In two hours time, she feeds the family dinner, supervises homework, has them take baths and puts them all to bed. She says everyone is in bed by 8:30 sharp. Perhaps, as in so many portraits of “Super Moms,” there is some exaggeration here. In fact, it strikes me as an outright fabrication. Either this is not occurring in two hours or they are all eating Pop Tarts for dinner and barely have time to throw out the wrappers. Whatever is the case, I suspect the Seeger children are eating very poorly, rarely say grace at meals, probably have weight problems due to over-consumption of carbohydrates, dress like slobs, never have a book read to them, and virtually never have relaxed conversation with their parents, in which higher values of any kind or the meaning of life might be explained to them. So what’s to like about all this? Are we supposed to find this story of domestic chaos uplifting?

We also learn that Sgt. Seeger’s workplace, which is the U.S. Air Force, is accommodating and often gives her time off for appointments. Given the demands of six children, she must be absent from work often. One wonders about her concentration on the job. For what possible reason other than the ideological pursuit of equality should stealth fighter jets be in the hands of a frazzled, overworked mother of six?  There might be another overworked mother out there who might benefit if Sgt. Seeger’s job was held by a man.

What we never learn from this portrait of a woman who is undoubtedly hard-working and dedicated to her children, is why. Why is it necessary for her to do all this? It is no doubt because she and her husband are relying on this income. If so, this is not an inspiring story at all, but one of depressing financial hardship, of need obliterating the possibility of a civilized life. The moral of the story should be sobering and cause us to question how we got to this point.

At the Air Force site:

Creating lasting memories with her children is important to Heather, but sometimes finding the time to do so can be challenging. Whether through friends, utilizing resources provided by the Airman and Family Readiness Center or telephone calls to her own mother for advice, Heather said one of the most important lessons she has learned over time is asking for help when she needs it.

“As much as you may feel that you have to do everything yourself, you don’t. I know a lot of times I would feel guilty letting people watch my kids or letting people help me because I thought it was my job to do everything,” she said. “You don’t have to be ‘Super Mom’ – it’s ok to let someone else help you and take the reins for a while.”

So in other words, in order to be a good mother, one should let other people do the job of a mother.

The truth is, schools and day care are raising Sgt. Seeger’s children. On most days, she has them for a couple of overwhelmingly harried hours a day. I am sure her children love her and she is to be commended for her hard work, but any decent society would not be lauding her schedule, which involves putting a three-year-old in an institution for most of the week, but striving to find ways to  prevent such chaos.

— Comments —-

S. Hudson, mother of four, writes:

I love how this woman gets the title of Super Mom because she has the ever-important career a woman needs to find fulfillment. Being a mother to six children is not enough to earn that title apparently. Not only that, but her career is in our new and improved military, bonus! Little is said about her husband who is overseas serving his country.

Terry Morris writes:

It probably is, as you say, a tale of this family relying on Heather’s income. Question is, why?

I’d like to see an inventory of all the stuff they own, specifically of all the stuff they don’t need, but own (or are making monthly payments on) nonetheless; stuff they own because they simply wanted it, and decided they deserve, given how hard they work’n’all. That would go a long way in answering the question.

I’ve seen quite a bit of this sort of thing both with my extended family, and with a few of our neighbors. It’s pervasive throughout the society, and it isn’t a good sign of things to come. Heather is being absolutely truthful about no longer having any qualms about laying her burdens on others. She’s past all that now. As a “career Mom” in our neighborhood who has four children said to my wife recently, “He (her husband) wants me to quit my job and stay home with the boys, and he thinks he’s going to convince me to do so if he just keeps trying. But that ain’t ever going to happen! He’s trying to take away my freedom, and I will never allow him to do that.”

“Freedom” means abandonment of one’s most sacred responsibilities, don’t ya know. And since two of her older boys were expelled from school for the remainder of the year recently, we have to watch them (one of them in particular) like a hawk. As I’ve said of the family before, “That’s the screwedupest way of raising children I’ve ever seen in my life.” And that’s no exaggeration, I assure you. The responsibility for restraining their children constantly shifts from the school to me to another neighbor down the street, but never to the parents. All because their mother is totally self-absorbed, and their father is a wimp. End of story, full stop.

Mr. Morris continues:

And by the way, Happy Mother’s Day, Laura – to you and to all of the women out there who make great sacrifices in order that they not abandon their responsibilities as wives, mothers and homemakers, in spite of all the outside pressures, and taxpayer -provided incentives to do so. The day ought to belong to you exclusive to all others. And in my (not so humble) opinion it does.

Laura writes:

 I prefer the day as it is — a day for all mothers. But thank you for your encouragement.

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