Anne Marie Slaughter's article in the Atlantic caused quite a buzz yesterday. It's a long enough piece, so there's plenty for the critics and the cheerleaders to latch onto. 

Slaughter's article was significant, because her work credentials are unmatched. She really did do everything right. She's not a semi-employed blogger who's complaining about the system. That makes her statements about the limitations of the office extremely damning and uncomfortable for people who try to minimize the struggles. 

There are some criticisms of her ideas from the usual circles. They tend to latch onto Slaughter's ideas about men and women and their commitment to the children. It's funny. That part of her article I completely blipped over it. For me, that was the least interesting part of her article. 

Her article is significant because she says that parents want and need to spend time with their children. Elite jobs do not allow this to happen. People who work those jobs have hours that none of you experience. They may not see their children for days at a time. There's no fighting with a spouse about household chores, because a housekeeper does everything. Someone else pays the bills. Someone else keeps track of soccer appointments. You keep track of the people who keep track of those little things. 

Now, very few of us are cut out for those elite jobs in the first place. But I do want to see more women in those positions. Is it possible to be an adequate parent when you see your children for an hour a day? Or not at all? 

While Slaughter may be primarily about elite women and their jobs, her discussion is useful for the rest of us, because regular jobs aren't that flexible either. Unlike jobs in education, most jobs expect you at a desk from 9 to 5. There are 2 weeks of vacation. With the downturn in the economy, fewer workers are doing twice the usual jobs. Those workers might be home earlier than Slaughter, but their lives are still very complicated. Parents are constantly complaining that they don't get enough time with their children. 

I'm trying not to be judgmental about the commentary on this article by young, childless women, but they aren't making it easy for me.