At best, this was a slip of the tongue. During a speech in Rhode Island Friday, President Obama claimed that Americans do not want to become stay-at-home moms.

“Moms and dads deserve a great place to drop their kids off every day that doesn’t cost them an arm and a leg,” Obama said, stressing the need for public pre-schools. This sentiment is in line with Obama’s “Preschool for all Initiative.”

“In many states, sending your child to daycare costs more than sending them to a public university. True? And too often, parents have no choice but to put their kids in cheaper daycare, that maybe doesn’t have the kinds of programming that makes a big difference in a child’s development. And then sometime their just may not be any slots or the best programs may be too far away. Sometimes, someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result. That’s not a choice we want Americans to make.”

Now while this may be true for some individuals who cannot afford day-care, many women see it as privilege to be able to leave the workplace to invest in their loved ones, and, through the raising of the next generation, the future of their country.