Monthly Archives: July 2009

You know you have a lot of kids when…

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You know you are on your 4th kid when you decide to completely skip the recommended two year pediatric check-up, as your toddler seems “plenty big enough,” and she walks and talks “just fine.”

For those of you with your own larger-than-average families, add your own “You know you have a lot of kids when…” moment in the comments below.

By a working mama, for the working mamas

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I posted this on my Facebook page the other day:

Sometimes, when it’s 5:10 pm and raining outside, and I haven’t yet left work to go home and feed hungry people, I say a little silent prayer of thanks for whomever it was who invented the glorious frozen pizza and its trusty sidekick, the pre-washed, bagged salad. Thank you, Mr. Frozen Pizza Inventor Guy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

But then, one of my friends commented to let me know that the inventor of the frozen pizza wasn’t a guy at all, the inventor was Rose Totino, who dropped out of school at the age of 16 to clean houses, became a wife and mother, ran an Italian restaurant with her husband, and eventually became the first-ever female VP of Pillsbury.

Of course, frozen pizza was invented by a working mama. Of course it was! I should have known.

Is Jack Welch right? No such thing as “work-life balance” for women?

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I wrote earlier this week over at my Home/Work blog about my ongoing struggle to leave work at work when I come home to my family, and now I am working on a somewhat related essay for Babble about former GE CEO Jack Welch’s recent comments on whether women who want to make it to the very top of their careers AND be really invested in their mothering can ever really succeed at both.

Welch basically says no, you have to choose one or the other, and he tells women they need to just accept that if we take time off to be home with our children at any point, or if we work a modified schedule or go part time during our careers, we can’t ever make it to the c-suite.

I’ll share my views on Welch’s comments, and what I think they say about men, women, the feminist movement, and national priorities in my essay, which should run in the next week or two at Babble, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.

Is Welch right? Are women who believe they can be really good moms and still reach the highest levels of their professions just deluding themselves? It is my anecdotal observation – and I am looking for research to either support or refute my hypothesis – that a higher-than-average percentage of women in America’s upper echelon of corporate career success have only one child, or no children at all.

Are Welch’s comments specific to only a few types of careers, like investment banking, law and corporate management? Or do they also apply to traditionally “female” careers, like teaching and social work?

If Welch is correct, should American women just accept this as the way of the world, and a price we pay for being female? Or is this a call to action for more women in legislative positions to help workers-who-are-also-mothers succeed in their careers, despite the “handicap” of being responsible for children? (Sort of the way minority legislators have traditionally looked out for their own affinity groups when crafting social policy, or the way Bob Dole helped get the Americans With Disabilities Act passed.)

Fire away on this one in the comments below. How has your own mothering impacted your career choices and opportunities, and vice versa?

Won’t you be my neighbor?

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Check out this incredible, amazing house that’s just gone up for sale on our street. Our little corner of the ‘hood is full of more good and wonderful neighbors than you can shake a stick at. It’s a great place to live, and this house is a terrific bargain that hasn’t been on the market for decades. Some lucky family is going to get a real deal on a 130 year old house, mere steps away from a city park and greenway, and with a fascinating history.

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The house is located in a neighborhood full of mature trees and real sidewalks, and within walking distance of things like Three Rivers Market and everything that’s happening these days in the rapidly redeveloping wonderful Downtown North Arts District, including the Glowing Body Yoga Studio and Cafe, and Magpies Bakery (who wouldn’t want to be able to walk to Magpies?). Our street is also only about 1.5 miles (maybe less than that) from Market Square.

As I have said many times since we moved here three years ago, living in a half-revitalized, truly urban neighborhood isn’t for everyone. A lot of folks would hate it, actually, and I know of at least two young families who have moved or are trying to move from our neighborhood because they found it wasn’t the right fit for them, and they didn’t want to deal with the issues specific to an inner city neighborhood like this. But I can honestly say that our street is improving all the time since we moved in (now if I could only say the same for our actual house, which needs A LOT of work that we seem to have trouble finding time and money to get accomplished, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.)

So if you are the urban pioneer type, and you like the idea of being part of a community of progressive neighbors who like old houses, city living and each other, I think our street is one of the undiscovered gems of Knoxville’s historic neighborhoods; we probably fly under the radar somewhat because our sub-neighborhood is technically part of Old North Knoxville, but the rest of ONK is on the other side of Broadway. We are actually much closer to 4th and Gill, but they don’t claim us.

If the house that was just listed doesn’t interest you, there are actually several others for sale on our street right now as well, and they are all at quite attractive prices because the market is so slow. So your historic bargain and friendly neighbors await!