Just out.....Opting IN by Amy Richards

So I just had it delivered today from Amazon. The new book by Amy Richards called Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself. The first chapter talks about how she (and many of her friends) read the "Opting Out" article in 2004, and had become obsessed with the article at that time because it was so far from how she (and her friends) felt about their careers and motherhood. She has found herself, on several occasions since then, thinking about that article and wanting to discuss it further. This book it that further discussion..... I 'll keep you posted!

Statistics on Working Moms

In the span of the past decade, full-time work outside the home has lost some of its appeal to mothers. This trend holds both for mothers who have such jobs and those who don't.
Among working mothers with minor children (ages 17 and under), just one-in-five (21%) say full-time work is the ideal situation for them, down from the 32% who said this back in 1997, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Fully six-in-ten (up from 48% in 1997) of today's working mothers say part-time work would be their ideal, and another one-in-five (19%) say she would prefer not working at all outside the home. (From the Pew Research Center) Click on the link to see the entire study. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/536/working-women What are your thoughts on this? I am currently working part time (3 full days a week) and working on my PhD one day a week. I spend the final weekday hanging out with my daughter. I feel more balanced right now than I ever have in my career. How are you feeling about your work-home balance right now? Do you agree with the research?

The "opt out" revolution

This is an old article from the New York Times magazine. A friend of mine, who is a working mom, sent this to me and it struck me then (before we were moms). I still think it is important to think about what we value as individuals. The teaching profession does, in many ways, provide more opportunity for "family time" than other professions, which is what makes the job more glamourous than others might. This is a great article about how all mothers who are career driven look at motherhood. To quote the article "The talk of this new decade is less about the obstacles faced by women than it is about the obstacles faced by mothers." I would love to hear your reactions to the article, as it does focus on mothers staying home instead of staying on the "fast track."http://chss.montclair.edu/~landwebj/ww/optout.htm