First lady juggles family, duties in governor's absence

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford may not be home every night to help her boys with homework or tuck them into bed, but she's doing her best to juggle parenthood with ceremonial duties while Gov. Mark Sanford spends two weeks at Air Force Reserve officer training.

When the family moved into the Governor's Mansion in January, Jenny Sanford wanted to take a break from the hectic schedule of the campaign trail.

She said she would wait six months before becoming actively involved in any issue, a decision that was "family-driven." She wanted to focus on helping the couple's four young boys settle into their new home and routines.

Now, Jenny Sanford is attending events in her husband's place and participating in morning meetings with the governor's staff in addition to her usual duties.

Most days, she wraps up her work in time to get home and help the boys with their homework. But Marshall, 10, Landon, 9, Bolton, 7, and Blake, 4, are picked up from school every afternoon by a nanny.

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Wednesday was another busy day with Sanford speaking at an early morning prayer breakfast, a conference sponsored by the South Carolina Afterschool Alliance and a reception hosted by the South Carolina Professional Association for Access and Equity.

She told the prayer breakfast attendees how difficult it is to talk with children about what's going on in the world. Although her boys were told their father was going away for training, not to war, there still was some confusion.

On Tuesday, the boys were discussing over breakfast when their father would be home. The oldest, Marshall, said it would be 12 more days. Bolton responded, "Twelve days? I thought it was 12 more years."

"I thought, oh gosh, I don't think we explained that very clearly," Sanford said.

Sanford is trying to be especially supportive of her boys during the next two weeks. It's the first time since leaving Congress in 2001 that Mark Sanford has been away from his sons for an extended time.

"I think his absence is being felt more now than it was before," Sanford said. "And maybe that's because they're older and they have traditions. ... It's not just putting the baby to bed. He likes to read from the Bible to them every night."

And although they understand their father is not in harm's way, the children still have questions and concerns about the war, she said.

"It's a double-edged sword," Sanford said. "You don't want to downplay the war because it's real. Yet you don't want to up-play it, because there is a chance he might go."

The boys were a key factor in the governor's decision to fulfill his military obligation. He said he wanted to show them the importance of service and set an example by keeping his commitment.

It's important that the governor is fulfilling his obligation, said TeNeane Johnson, a member of the Afterschool Alliance Conference Committee attending the conference where Jenny Sanford spoke Wednesday afternoon. "It's very patriotic," she said.

Joy Young, a conference attendee and employee of Communities in Schools, agreed the governor made the right choice. "Whatever decision he makes we have to support," she said.

--From the Thursday, March 27, 2003 online edition of the Augusta Chronicle