The polar vortex has turned my mornings into a polar vortex. In the past two weeks, we have had rain, snow and wind worthy of making this mom have no guilt about the thoughts of allowing her kids to play hooky from school.
I now feel like my mother and grandmother repeating stories of the difficulties of getting to school. "I had to ride two buses, walk eight blocks..." You know how the stories go.
I have two kids in different schools many blocks apart. There is no really easy way to get to the first drop off other than a taxi. When there are weather issues, there seem to be no taxis available. At such times, I'm forced to sit in the lobby of my building dialing different car services multiple times before I finally get a positive response. When we finally get into a car, I feel relieved. "Ahhhhh, we're gonna make it." And then we get to the block of the school. An uphill block with five schools located on the small street. Three times in the past few weeks we have gotten stuck in snow on the school street that has not yet been plowed. We have had to back down, go around and then run to the middle of the block in snow that hasn't been moved, blown or shoveled, let alone plowed.
I ask myself why this is happening. I wonder what is going on. My kids are screaming, "de Blasio sucks." I assume they have heard that from their peers. And then it dawns on me. We didn't have unplowed streets when Bloomberg was mayor.
I understand one of the most difficult jobs a person can have is to be a politician. I don't envy any of them. They get attacked daily. They are the butt of jokes. Politicians are dissed in every way imaginable. Dissected, disrespected, disposable and considered dishonest. Everything bad is their fault. Everything good is because of others.
But why, in office only a month, is it so difficult for the Mayor to keep the city safe? I'm not one to be scared by weather. I venture out in anything. I'll go anywhere. But this has been a disaster. And so I began to think though we have four more years, is it possible for a mom to be mayor?
I don't know much about politics, but there is not much about me that isn't known, so I'm ahead of the game. I'm an almost-divorced, "single mom." I've already been followed by paparazzi. I've already been attacked in the press and mostly everything else about my life is easily Google searchable, so I feel prepared for politics. Now all I need to do is be briefed. There are plenty of smart people to surround myself with. Right?
I'm not great at balancing my checkbook, but there would be others to deal with the budget. I need new healthcare since my divorce is about to be final, so that issue is of interest to me. I hate guns. I'm pro-choice.
I have a son in public school. I'm not sure why Pre-K is the current mayors biggest issue. Maybe he should worry about parents getting their kids to school in K-12 before pushing for another grade. How hard is it to call in the plows? Look at a map and make a plan. I could easily appoint a map mom to make this all work.
So how about #TheMOMSForMayor?
I'm also a small business owner. I have another mom partner. She's a small town girl from St. Louis. So we have diversity. She's married to the love of her life. She has three kids in public school.
Both of our prior careers were as journalists and television producers. So we will do fine on camera, at press conferences and writing speeches. We just need help with the issues. But we are both determined moms with massive ideas so isn't that a good start? Wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air?
Women are needed in politics. Doesn't everyone hate politicians anyway? We created a platform for moms all about the parenting conversation with the goal of including voices from all over the country. We co-created a fashion show to empower women for real women. We are part of our school PA's, we run our lives, professional and personal and our kids hectic schedules in our sleep. So why not also run our city? Team MOM will start with Map Moms. We'll move on to Policy Parents, Delegate Dads, Grassroots Grandma.
So, when do the #TheMOMSForMayor classes begin? Who wants to join the mom movement? We will need trusting teachers for this reform. We can only handle one polar vortex, not two. The MOMS for Mayor?