Here's the thing. There are men that suck at their jobs and it isn't because they are fathers. It's because they suck. There are women who suck at their jobs – and they may be mothers…but they suck at their jobs b/c they suck. Not b/c they are mothers.

The bottom line is that, until recently, mothers have been pigeon holed b/c of the fact that they were mothers. The glass ceiling was even lower then than it is now.

Mothers bring a special set of attributes (above and beyond the normal requirements for a particular job) to the table b/c of the fact that they have to be so selfless and so on top of everything all the time. Are all mothers like this? NO. But I am. and Principessa put me into a bucket that implies that I am a crappy employee.

Honestly, this isn't even worth it b/c Principessa doesn't even truly understand what the original message was of this article. She has shifted the entire focus elsewhere.

Per The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt; Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School; Smith Business Solutions
Link to article: hhttp://www.bankruptcylawinformation.com/index.cfm?event=dspStats
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The average age of a bankruptcy filer is 38
Couples filing jointly make-up 44% of all bankruptcy filings
Another 30% of the filers are women filing bankruptcy alone.
Just 26% of the bankruptcy filers are men who are filing alone
Another statistic says the most bankruptcy filers are slightly better educated than the general population
Two out of three bankruptcy filers have lost a job
Half of all bankruptcy filers have experienced a serious health problem
91% of bankruptcy filers have suffered a job loss, medical event or divorce
The states that have the highest bankruptcy rates are Tennessee, Utah, Georgia, and Alabama
40% of bankruptcies result from medical crises, unemployment or divorces
90% of these filers have two car payments, a house payment, and an average of $2500 in credit card debt
10% of filers were delinquent only 5 to 29 days before bankruptcy.
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It's so sad to see that ignorance has taken over the intentions of this blog. Flora's article is perfect and accurate. As a business owner and after years of experience working in an office (including in management roles), I can accurately state that based on my experience, working mothers are usually terrific managers. I have witnessed that working moms have great skills in time management, balance, prioritizing, organization, efficiency, goal orientation, delegation, detail orientation, having grace under fire, conflict resolution, knowledge, experience, communication, documentation, fairness, compassionate leadership, creativity, and being team players/builders. They either strive to achieve professional growth, or they are happy with the roles they have and perform better than anyone else. Questions can be raised at times regarding reliability, but strong management recognizes their value and can remain rest assured that even if this mom may need a more flexible schedule, they are bring such value to the office that they are not replaceable. There is an interesting component to being a working mom, especially a single working mom, they understand the value of their job in their personal life and take ownership of their work. If a single working mom looses her job, she can not support herself let alone a child, so she works harder to keep it. An interesting fact is that working mom's go through school twice, once themselves, then along with their children. We get a refresher on all the basics as we do homework with our kids which is greatly helpful professionally. My math, social studies, grammar and science skills have notably improved over the past 5 years thanks to my sons. Coincidentally, I find I am more interested in taking time to research things before forming opinions (hint, hint). It is because I have gone through the ups and downs of learning how to balance a career and raising wise children, as well as critical life experience, that allowed me to be in a position today where I can now own a successful growing business.

Working moms and a history of bankruptcy? Are you trying to say that it is working moms who have declared bandruptcy and because of that, you feel they would be (or are) deficient employees? So, there are no men in your office who have declared bankruptcy? Give me a break. Bankruptcy hits everyone, whether they are a working mom or a working dad. And why are working dads not subject to your tunneled vision view of the world?

Working moms are always looking for a "excuse" to increase their paycheck?! Normal people call that assertive. What surprises me even more about your comment is that normally, women (moms or not, so in the general sense, if you can wrap your head around THAT) have a harder time pushing for raises AND historically are paid less than their male counterpart for the same job. There is a stigma associated with a woman stepping up to their (usually male) boss and arguing for a raise by showing accomplishments. Men do it all the time, and they are assertive. They get a pat on the back. Women do it, and we are "agitators" or bitchy. YOU are a woman, and you probably have dealt with getting the short end of the stick as opposed to your male counterparts, but instead, you are focusing your disdain on your female counterparts who have kids! It's strange! Sounds to me as if you have 1 specific employee in your head and it has jaded you toward the entire working mom group. I wonder, are you the one who hired this woman? Maybe you made a bad choice. And if you didn't hire this woman, then someone else was trying to give her a chance but maybe made a mistake.

And as far as your generalization that "they" want to use domestic experience as work experience is concerned: There are many working moms out there who have Masters and PhDs! They are not using their domestic "experience", as you call it, as work experience. I have a 4 year degree and almost 12 years of experience in the industry in which I work.

Many working moms either were in the work force and removed themselves for a spell so that they could raise their kids, or they always were in the work force, and never left.

Seriously, it is people like you who poison the growth potential with your jaded generalizations. How about at least acknowledging the fact that your opinion does not apply to all working moms.

Start there, Pincipessa, or are you too good for that, as your name implies?