Lisa Belkin has another New York Times magazine cover. This one should attract as much attention as her past ones, but maybe much less bile. She writes about one couple’s efforts to truly split parenting down the middle.

Instead, they would create their own model, one in which they were
parenting partners. Equals and peers. They would work equal hours,
spend equal time with their children, take equal responsibility for
their home. Neither would be the keeper of the mental to-do lists;
neither of their careers would take precedence. Both would be equally
likely to plan a birthday party or know that the car needs oil or miss
work for a sick child or remember (without prompting) to stop at the
store for diapers and milk. They understood that this would mean
recalibrating their career ambitions, and probably their income, but
what they gained, they believed, would be more valuable than what they
lost.

Great video here and Belkin starts a blog about it.

I’ll have more comments later, but just a quick observation.

Sandra Tsing Loh has finally stopped writing militant pro-public school rants and has come back to parenting and feminism. She reviews Hirshman’s book and a book by Neil Gilbert. Some fun snarkiness in the article, and I should come back to that one, too. 

Loh’s essay covers both extremes of the work-family balance debate and ends it with a reflection about how great she’s worked it out. She’s home with the kids AND she works. She lets them watch a princess video, while writing an essay about parenting for a top rung magazine. Millions of mommybloggers would kill for that job. She’s managed to combine a successful career and a successful family, because she’s lucky and very talented.

Also, the couple featured in the story have somehow worked it out with their employers that they work only 30 hours a week. That’s not normal. 

Steve really, really wants to go a Father’s Day breakfast at Ian’s school tomorrow. Ian has been learning songs all week and making art projects for it. Steve hasn’t attended any school conferences, IEPs, or school shows all year, but he really wants to go to this one. In order to cut down on missed hours at work, I have to wait around for the show to be over and drive him into the city, so he doesn’t waste time on the bus.

I’m a huge fan of equal parenting and flexible work hours. We’ve experimented over the years with creating better balance. It’s just very tough.