In my mother’s family, the ambitious ones are the honest, hard working people who not only did things well for their families, but “spread the wealth” of both their monetary and non-corporeal riches widely.

On the other hand…
on my father’s side of the family, there was a great deal of ambition, and it was combined with a cold determination that often excluded human concerns. This was not *always* true (my aunt was ambitious and otherwise a fabulous human being, giving of her time and money to the world in a loving way) but it was very common.

I find myself in a strange position… my mother’s family criticizes me for being unambitious because I don’t value the financial issues as they do, but choose to stay home and care for my family. But they tend to see the loosers of the world as people who have lots of children and don’t work. They aren’t Catholic, so… they don’t always value life as they should.

Some how, raising children and running my own business from home, while my husband works the corporate world is somehow seen as less industrious than if I worked in the same mode as my husband.

It’s always interesting to see how certain people define ambition as compared to others.

And, for what it’s worth, while she seems to have proved herself to obtain very little of that ‘star quality’, I support Kate Gosselin for keeping her life together the best she can in the midst of a bitter and public divorce while caring for 8 children. My guess is that those who criticize her choice of career do so more out of jealousy than anything else.