Welcome

Until 2:30 every day, I'm a working mom. Then -- late, always late -- I tear down the office stairs or fly out the back door of the home office in my kitchen just in time to pick up my three kids from their two schools. Then my second shift starts: basketball practice, computer class and endless dispute settlement from behind the wheel of my trusty, trashed SUV/insane asylum.

Not working would kill me. But not being with my three kids "enough" (a definition that changes every week) would be another kind of death. So I devote myself to juggling work and kids, with a splash of husband thrown in.

This blog is devoted to illuminating the work/family debate through stories from moms about how we juggle work and kids, in whatever portions we've chosen (including none). So welcome, working moms, sort-of working moms and not-working-right-now moms.

This dialogue will be provocative -- in the best sense of the word. I know firsthand the startling honesty moms can muster because of my anthology Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off On Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families. The book came about because I was curious about stay-at-home moms. "Curious" was a polite way of saying I was irrationally, disturbingly jealous of them: How dare they be so happy doing nothing when I had to work or die?

Poring over other moms' dissections of their work/kid choices had a healing, restorative affect on me. I learned that at-home moms are doing far more than "nothing," and that they're just as busy as I am, taking care of their kids and homes and pitching in at school on critical volunteer projects that horrify me and other working parents because of the time commitment. My brain no longer automatically divides moms into at-home vs. working, you vs. me categories. I've become at peace with myself and all moms of the world!

Well, almost.

So we're going to get into it in this blog. The rules are: Tell the exhaustive truth, even if that includes judgment, criticism and asking and answering hard questions. We'll use this blog to achieve one primary goal -- to say what we think. However, we represent the fairer sex, so let's try to dole out kindness and respect. And full apologies when necessary. And I, at least, will try to protect my children's privacy by using their initials instead of full names. What you share is up to you.

Let's go.

By Stacey Garfinkle |  March 9, 2006; 11:00 AM ET
Previous: About Leslie Morgan Steiner | Next: Mommy's Office

Name:

Comments: