Obama was speaking at Rhode Island College on Friday when he told the crowd that America does not want women to be stay-at-home moms because her earning potential will be compromised for the rest of her life.  Instead, the president suggested, it would be better for parents to enroll their toddlers into day-care facilities to let other people raise their children.
Moms and dads deserve a great place to drop their kids off everyday, that doesn’t cost them an arm and a leg.  We need better child-care, day-care, early childhood education policies.  You know, in many states, sending your child to day-care cost more than sending them to a public university.  True?  And too often, parents have no choice but to put their kids in cheaper day-care that maybe doesn’t have the kinds of programming that makes a big difference in a child’s development, but, and sometimes there just might not be any slots or the best programs may be too far away.
And sometimes, someone, usually Mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life, as a result.  And that’s not a choice we want Americans to make.  So let’s make this happen by the end of this decade, let’s enroll six million children in high-quality pre-school and let’s make sure that we are making America stronger.  That is good for families.  It’s also good for the children because we know investing in high-quality early child-hood education makes all the difference in the world.  And those kids will do better.
Christian Post Op-Ed Contributor Kristin Burton Brown wrote in response to the president’s remarks:
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I hope you misspoke, but let me tell you how this comes across to stay-at-home moms. You’re telling us that the money we earn is more important than our kids. You’re telling us that leaving the workplace to stay home isn’t a choice American moms should be making….And, as a stay-at-home mom myself, who is also an attorney, let me tell you that I want to choose my kids over my career.
Many people have been Tweeting their reactions: