Most Stay-at-Home Moms Aren't 'Opting Out': Census

Forbes weighs women's salaries, safety, unemployment

(NEWSER) - With its low rates of unemployment and violent crime, combined with relatively high salaries for women, the Minneapolis/St. Paul area tops the Forbes list of best cities for working mothers. The magazine gave added weight in this year's rankings to women's income, and when the numbers were crunched, the Minnesota capital area replaced New York in the No. 1 spot and finished ahead of runner-up Washington, DC. The rest of the top 10: More»

Selling advice to parents is just adding stress

(NEWSER) - Thanks to offhand comments from her son ("You're a mean mom!") and underhanded comments from other parents ("Your son's very competitive!"), Karen Houppert wakes up at 2:30am every day, wrestling with self-doubt. The newest parenting trend—family coaches to perfect your child-raising skills—joins the already $2.1 trillion "mommy market" of advice and enrichment for sale. "And what if you resist such costly 'enrichment' for junior?" she writes for Salon. Answer? "Bad mommy!" More»

(NEWSER) - Stefanie Wilder-Taylor made a name for herself penning light-hearted accounts of life as a hard-drinking mom, so her blog readers were shocked when she announced that she was laying off the sauce, the New York Times reports. Drinking-while-parenting “was a way to express that we’re still fun people,” but when she woke up on the couch fully clothed one morning, she realized, “I have these kids who are depending on me, and I have a bad problem.” More»

Think before offering 'constructive criticism,' then ... keep it to yourself: Warner

(NEWSER) - The maternal resentment has evidently been building up for a while, and New York Times blogger Judith Warner is letting loose. She recounts slights perpetrated against her and her friends and wonders: "Why do people so often permit themselves to dump—verbally, emotionally, with a surgically precise ability to wound viscerally—on mothers? And why do we put up with it? " More»

Daycare program aims to get moms working; won’t conquer guilt

(NEWSER) - The Dutch government is working to get women working. A new law mandating that schools must provide afternoon childcare is meant to raise the number of mothers in full-time jobs, the Economist reports. At 66%, the Netherlands has a higher than average female workforce among European countries, but 61% of those are part time. And other social forces stand in the way. More»