It's a Tough Job, But I'm Great at It

As they toil in the workplace, are employed mothers wishing they were with their kids? Apparently not. A poll by The Washington Post asked mothers in its metro area whether they're satisfied with the amount of time they can spend with various people in their lives. As you can see from the chart, mothers in general voiced satisfaction with the amount of time they spend with their kids. Among stay-at-home mothers, 99 percent were content on that score. More surprisingly, so were 78 percent of working mothers. As you can also see from the chart, respondents tend to feel they have enough time for everyone but themselves. For all the talk of guilt and self-doubt among modern mothers, it's worth noting that motherhood is also a source of self-congratulation. Asked how good a job they're doing as mothers, 52 percent said "excellent" and 46 percent "good." Working mothers were even more likely than stay-at-homes to rate themselves as excellent (55 percent vs. 48 percent). Just 11 percent of working mothers said their mothering suffers "a lot" due to their responsibilities on the job. One bonus of modern motherhood is that it lets women feel superior to their own mothers. That's implicit in the responses to a question that asked whether motherhood is now more or less demanding than in the previous generation. Seventy-one percent said it's more demanding; a mere 4 percent said it's less so.