I’m not sure why I put this together, but I thought it might make for interesting discussion. Notice that “good” dads and “bad” moms occupy the same part of the chart? I used to be heavily in the blue/green circles, no yellow. Now I like to think I’m closer to the Swedish moms, in the [...]
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I read The Second Shift more than a decade ago, when I was fresh out of graduate school, working at an Internet startup, newly married (to my first husband), and planning to have a child. That book scared the hell out of me. It was based on research conducted in the 1980s by the prize-winning [...]
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Lucie’s guest post last week touched a nerve with several blog readers. If you haven’t read it, her post was about why it’s easier to be a working mom in France than in the U.S. (Lucie was born in France, lived most of her adult life in California, and is now living in France with [...]
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Inspired by Ami’s letter last week and the many comments that followed, I put together this quick poll.* I’m curious to see how many other moms and dads would feel lucky to get, say…bunion surgery, or maybe a minor concussion, if it meant a break from their daily obligations. Please share this with your friends. [...]
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Has your sex life taken a hit since your first child was born? Sex is one of the many casualties of an over-busy life. After an informal poll of my friends, I’ve come to believe that being busy has a different impact on the libido of men and women. I believe it looks something like [...]
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“Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” –Mark Twain Most of the stuff on this blog explores the problem of work-life conflict. But I got a lot of compliments about an advice-oriented post I wrote in June, which had some tips for managing extreme stress. Thus encouraged, I’ve put together a sequel. Here are [...]
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I drive a minivan. There. I’ve said it. Maybe you think that’s not cool. I’ll try not to hold that against you. I happen to think that SUVs, which are less fuel-efficient than my minivan, aren’t cool. I hope we can still be friends. Toyota has come out with this video (“Swagger Wagon”), proving that [...]
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A quiet revolution has been taking place in Sweden for 15 years, affecting everything from the gender pay gap to workplace culture to relationships between parents and children. It all started at home. Here’s a link to the fascinating New York Times story about this phenomenon. Now here’s my distilled version—with original illustrations! This Swedish [...]
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This is part of a series of posts about how working couples share the under-the-radar chores that, taken together, represent the “psychic burden” of parenting. Be sure to read these parts first: Part I. Survey results Part II. Why it’s fair Part III. Why it’s not fair My last post explored how parents (mostly moms) [...]
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