“What do you think Mama does for work?” I ask my 3-year-old.

He thinks about it. “Make dinner?” he asks.

“Anything else?” I ask him.

He nods, and tries to sneak a sip of my coffee. It’s cold, so I let him, and he smiles and smacks his lips as a little bit of it dribbles down his chin. “Um… you do laundry?”
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I’ve been working from home a bit more lately, and while I love the flexibility, I get the feeling that some of my coworkers aren’t too keen on how often I’m away from the building.

Of course, all of my work gets done — and more, really, since I’m much more productive when I’m telecommuting. Working from home when I need to is something I had to negotiate for myself, it’s not something my employer urges people to do. But the alternative was bringing my kids to the office with me, and, as far as I’m concerned, that’s not a good option — not for me, not for my kids, and not for my company.
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Last year, my main employer looked into saving money on health insurance by switching most of its employees to a plan that offered less coverage for more money. The immediate savings, of course, was mostly for the health insurance company: The new plan shifted responsibility for paying for many standard procedures, prescriptions, and routine tests from the insurance company to the patient. The long-term savings were for the employer: By setting a precendent in which the patient pays for most of his or her care, the employer could eventually reduce the amount of money it had to pay in to our health care plans.

We ended up lobbying to keep our old plan — turned out the much-feared increase in premiums was a fraction of what we were told it would be — but the incident was on my mind recently as I listened to the debate about health care reform. And I’ve come to the conclusion that the brouhaha isn’t so much about politics as it is about power.
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There’s a fair amount of outrage right now over the New York Times piece that ran this weekend: Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy Building My Brand.

In the article, the writer attended Bloggy Boot Camp — a blogging and social-media how-to conference for women — and ended up offending bloggers across the country with what some people saw as snarky quips and condescending comments about the very thing that keeps their families afloat.

“FYI, I will DEFINITELY have a session at Type-A Mom Con on dealing with the media,” tweeted Kelby Carr. “And don’t we already have enough that we make ourselves feel guilty about w/o ANOTHER MOTHER pouring it on?” asked Angela England. “Mothers are perhaps easiest/largest target, but women in general subject to unreasonable scrutiny,” pointed out Julie Marsh, also known on Twitter as Momslant.

I’m straddling a fine line here, but as both a journalist and a mom blogger I think that the problem has less to do with being a mom, and more to do with being a blogger.
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Yesterday, I felt defeated by my to-do list.

I slogged through it, item by item, until my eyes were crossing and I was desperate for a break. But by then it was time to head home, and the list, with so many lines still not crossed off, taunted me for my entire commute.

Until I turned in to my driveway and realized that at least half of the things on the list were things I wanted to get done, but couldn’t possibly do at work.
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Last week, I was in a car accident. I’m fine, the guy who hit me is fine, my car is not, but cars are fixable and replacable and people aren’t, so in the grand scheme of things, everything is going to be OK.

While we wait for the insurance companies to duke it out, I thought I’d share a few tips for making sure things go smoothly after an accident.

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A recent poll by Beyond.com of more than 6,800 business executives found that, in this economy, 58 percent said that they’d take any job they could get if they were unemployed right now. About 17 percent said that they’d go back to school, and 6 percent said they’d wait for the economy to get better, but about 18 percent said that they would “pursue their passion.”

Which is all well and good, if money is no object. But how do you pursue your passion without falling behind on your mortgage payments?

I think you have to start by figuring out what your passion is. If you’re really lucky, you’re already doing what you love — even if it’s not for pay, even if it’s technically not your “job.”
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