More on Kids and Work

I keep thinking about that slide show of the staff at Mothering magazine hard at work while their kids frolic and play and nurse around them. I’ve decided the crucial detail, the thing that gives it all away, is the laptops.

I’m not a big fan of Mothering. I don’t do very well on its parenting litmus test--I only nursed for a year, we are trying valiantly to kick our kids out of the involuntary family bed, we vaccinated, our kids go to school, and public school at that. But I’m not accusing the staff of dissimulating. I think they genuinely believe in combining kids and work, and they want to show how it can be done.

The thing is, the laptops show the way it’s really done. I’d bet my eyeteeth (whatever that means, and why on earth did I say it?) that those women don’t hang out at that office from 9-5 every day, writing articles and editing copy and negotiating with authors while their kids play, cry, nurse, refuse to nap, eat snacks, spill milk, cry some more, and finally settle down happily to play--for half an hour. I bet they all came in for a day, and the photographer took those lovely family friendly pictures, and the next day it was back to normal: one or two women in for the day because daddy has the kids, another one running in for a quick meeting with the baby in the sling, yet another tearing her hair out as she divides her attention between the kids who are demanding that she listen to them and the layout that absolutely must be proofed by the end of the day. And the rest of them at home with those LAPTOPS, banging out leads while the kids nap, and staying up late, really late, after everyone else has gone to sleep, to do their other work.

I’m all in favor of the family friendly workplace, though I don’t have much original to say about it. Longer maternity leaves, quality onsite daycare, flexibility, valued part-time, the option to bring your kids to work if you need or want to, etc. [Tried to find a good link, but they’re all pretty obvious.] And I’m very glad that my workplace welcomes children, so that when I need to bring them in (snowday, too sick for school but not so sick that they need to stay in bed) or want to bring them in (for some reason they think it’s a big treat), nobody raises an eyebrow and everyone is happy to see them. But when I do bring them in, I know that I will only manage to do what I absolutely have to do--and I will stay up late that night, catching up on my laptop.