Madonna's attorneys announced that the Material Mom will get another day in Malawian court on May 4th to fight for her right to adopt little Mercy James.

"I cannot disclose our grounds of appeal, but I can confirm the court will hear our appeal," lawyer Alan Chinula said, according to the New York Daily News. Madonna, however, won't be there. Perhaps she will be busy working out?

According to a new report from Perez Hilton, Madonna's former chef, Eric Ienco, is telling tales about Madge's parenting -- or lack thereof. Ienco says: "She gets up and has a coffee, then she does two hours of yoga. Then there's two hours of Pilates and exercise. That's six days a week. After that, she deals with her e-mail, her calls and the rest of her business. And after that, she spends maybe half an hour with the kids. If Lourdes comes in and says, 'I want to see Mom,' she is told, 'She's doing yoga' - and Lourdes knows she can't disturb Mom. Madonna puts herself before her kids."

Ienco goes on to say that "When [Madonna] adopted little David, he arrived at her home from Africa and three hours later, she left to do Pilates. Wouldn't you think she'd want to spend the entire day with her new son?"

If this is true, it doesn't sound like there are too many hours left in the day for Madonna to live up to the Material Mom moniker. I wonder if we can take the word of a former employee who may be, as the saying goes, disgruntled.

The thing is, even if what the chef describes is true, is what she's doing any worse than a parent who works in an office 15 hours a day? Technically, staying in shape is part of her job.

No matter what kind of parent she is, I stand by what I've said all along: that Mercy James will be better off living in England with the Ciccone clan rather than spending her days at a Malawian orphanage, even if mom exercises all day and spanks her kids for bad horseback riding. Allegedly.

What do you think? Should Madonna win her appeal? Or is she a lousy parent?