Henry climbed into bed next to me this morning and said, “Did you ever shower last night?”

“Huh? No,” I said, still mostly asleep.

“Oh,” he said. “Well, you stink.”

That pretty much summed up my mood this weekend, too.

At Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Bush introduced Julie Aigner-Clark, creator of the Baby Einstein empire (now owned by Disney) as an example of “the character of our people . . . the heroic kindness and courage, and self sacrifice of the American people.” Yes, it takes courage and heroism to develop a line of baby and toddler videos designed to make parents feel guilty about not teaching their infants the difference between Manet and Monet.

In Wednesday’s recap of the President’s speech, the New York Times noted the dramatic change signaled by Nancy Pelosi’s role as first woman Speaker of the House by pointing out that “Appearances were obviously important to Ms. Pelosi, who changed from the brown suit she had worn earlier in the day to a soft green one, which offered more contrast to her dark leather speaker’s chair.” The Times didn’t bother to mention that Ms. Pelosi had changed her suit because she spilt coffee on herself earlier in the day.

On Thursday, Judith Warner’s examination of America’s willingness to elect a female president elicited nearly 100 comments, most of which were some variant of this: “I don’t think that voters will write off Ms. Clinton because she is female. That statement misses the mark. I think that they will write her off if she can not shake the perception among voters that she is a political opportunist who will say/do whatever appears to be politically expedient at the moment.” So we don’t like her because she acts just like every other (male) member of Congress currently running for President?

On Friday, Meredith Viera equated being a mother with being a babysitter. I don’t even know where to start with this one. I don’t want my babysitter drinking while she watches my kids, of course, but I also don’t want her to plop them in front of the TV while she takes a shower, or tuck them in at bedtime and then have sex with her husband once they are asleep. Apparently, I am not allowed to do any of those things either.

In a week that should have been all about our move forward, women were instead reminded that our place was in the nursery, devoting ourselves entirely to our children. We were reminded that even when we achieve positions of power–Speaker of the House, presidential candidate–we will be called out for acting unladylike, or patronized for our appearance. We will not be respected, no matter what we achieve.

And god forbid we have a cocktail at the end of the day. Because WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?

So yesterday I never showered. I made banana bread, which required two trips to the grocery, and I took a nap with Charlie, who stayed up late on Friday night to go to a birthday party, and at 5:00 I poured myself a glass of wine and popped a frozen pizza in the oven and steamed some broccoli and had a nice dinner with my family. And I spent the whole day feeling vaguely irritated because being a mother is NOT the same as being a babysitter and I am NOT what I wear and my children are doing just fine, thank you.

Okay, so maybe I still feel a little stinky. Don’t you?