The Sarah Palin Channel has a free video up which seems determined to show Palin as a good mother. Can you say epic fail?

Click bored children to watch video.

My assumption is that this video was supposed to demonstrate a day in the life of a woman parenting a child with Down syndrome. However what it shows is a woman completely out of her depth, who does not have the skill set to effectively care for a child with special needs.

In the very beginning of the video Palin tells Trig that she wants to read him a book. He responds by covering his ears, while Piper carries him to where Palin wants to do this reading, which oddly enough is in front of a giant television playing Sponge Bob Squarepants.

Then Palin attempts to get Trig's attention by reading in an incredibly irritating sing song voice, and showing him pictures that are clearly not nearly as interesting to him as what is on the television screen. Even Piper looks bored out of her mind.

This is not how you get children to engage in story time.

There should be limited distractions and you should invite them to identify characters, colors, and words in the book along with you.  "Red fish, Blue Fish" was one of my daughter's favorite books, and even at two and three she was able to memorize passages and say them out loud with me.

The next sequence shows Palin feeding Trig baby food, which she does while having him watch a portable DVD player. (Apparently Palin uses these electronic devices, TV, DVD players, and I-Pads, to keep Trig calm while she interacts with him.)

During the feeding sequence Palin essentially treats Trig as if he is a toddler even though he is at least six in these videos. (The Sarah Palin Channel has only been up since July of last year.)

I am not sure what Palin was hoping this video would do for her, humanize her perhaps, but what it really does is reveal to the world that Trig did NOT get the therapy that he needed at a very young age, that Palin still does not know how to interact with him effectively, and that she relies on electronic gadgets to essentially baby sit him in order to keep him manageable.

I have worked with a lot of Down syndrome kids over the years, and at Trig's age they are usually able to communicate, eat solid foods, and even read and write on their own.

I am not sure what Trig's actual diagnosis might be, it is possible he has more than just Down's to deal with, but from the outside looking in there are a lot of things lacking in his life that even parents with less money have been able to provide for their children.

And somebody also needs to explain to me how wearing the Belmonts in this video helps Palin with her parenting. Because that was really confusing.