I’m getting knee surgery on Tuesday. And I need your help. What should I do with my week on the couch? Remember that thing I wrote a while back? About people fantasizing about going into the hospital, just to get a break, because they were so stressed out? I put together a poll, and found [...]
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We’re back, after a peaceful week in a tent, at the edge of Yosemite. For one exciting, very wet day, thunder and lightening crashed around us. The rest of our vacation was sunny days by the river, swimming, fishing, and eating popsicles. I even read a whole Aimee Bender novel! The absolute best part of [...]
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Working parents have a lot to juggle, and this can create stress. But what we often overlook is that stress has real health consequences. Several weeks ago, I put together a survey* asking working parents about stress and its effects on their health. More than 600 people responded. I filtered out respondents who lived in [...]
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I’m still going through your wonderful responses to the survey and hope to post the results next week. Here’s sneak peek at the data: 81% of people who took the survey said they worry about burning out. 81 percent! Are you as astonished by that number as I am? In the words of one parent [...]
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This is a provocative talk that Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook) gave at the TEDWomen conference last year. If you haven’t seen it yet, definitely check it out. It’s about why we don’t have more women leaders. Some disturbing statistics: Of 190 heads of state, nine are women. Of all the people in parliament in [...]
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In March I wrote a post about how women are having fewer babies around the world, how this is creating a economic and culture crisis in some countries, and how our decision to have fewer children seems to be linked, in part, to our need for more family-friendly work policies. (Phew! That was a mouthful. [...]
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I just put together a very simple survey about working parents and stress. It takes only 5 minutes to complete. If you’re a parent and you work to help support your family, here’s what I’d like you to do: 1. Take the survey. 2. Forward the survey (or this post) to everyone you know. 3. [...]
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This is from Tina Fey’s new book, “Bossypants.” It’s delicious. Makes me want to write a version for my son. (Thanks for sending, Julia!) A Mother’s Prayer for Its Child First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches. May she be Beautiful but [...]
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Nancy Davis Kho is a freelance writer and consultant in the Bay Area, with two daughters, age 13 and 10. Since her first child was born, she has tried just about every possible work schedule, from full time to part time to no time, and some other stuff in between. Today she gives us a [...]
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My last full time job was leading a team of designers for a web agency. I used to hire a lot of freelancers when we had more work than our staff could handle. Some of these freelancers were moms who limited their hours so they could pick their kids up from daycare. They were exceptionally [...]
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