Much ado about nothing

I've read a lot of hype about an article in the Atlantic by Anne Marie Slaughter.

Yes, I know it's in a major paper and therefore lots of people will comment on it - but why all of the "you quitter"/"you whiner"/"suck it up"/"you just THINK you're a good mother" comments???  That's what I don't get.  Judging from the responses coming from many people, I imagine they didn't read the entire article but are instead basing their conclusions off the title she gives it.  After all, it's a full seven internet pages, which in internet terms makes it about as finish-able for most people as, say, the Quijote. 

I slogged through it, and found much to agree with and much to disagree with.  Overall, I liked it because it wasn't another "go get-em, girls, you can do it all if you're just willing to be sleep-deprived enough!" (because as any woman who has tried to have children and a career knows, the success you have at both often depends on how well you can survive sacrificing sleep).  One important note that contradicts what many of her critics are saying about her article, she is NOT saying "women can't have it all but should be able to!  Whah, whah, life is so unfair to women!"

My favorite of her conclusions is this line:
"Having it all, at least for me, depended almost entirely on what type of job I had. The flip side is the harder truth: having it all was not possible in many types of jobs, including high government office—at least not for very long."

Read: if you choose to have children, you will have to make hard choices and many professional options will be closed to you.  Be ye warned.

I think it's a perfectly reasonable statement/warning/conclusion.

The statement I quote above sums up why I chose to pursue a career as a professor rather than as a high school teacher (the original plan - and I would have been a miserable failure at it, might I add!).  Or a prosecutor (the next option I happened upon - there I would have been a miserable example of burnout, I think).  I wanted the flexibility that would allow me to do both, and do them both well. 

I have to work hard to do both, and I'm certainly no Melveena McKendrick or Linda Eyre.  But I am raising kids who are (so far) reasonably-behaved, respectful, healthy, intelligent, and happy.  And I produce students who do things like give  me flowers at the end of a term (I almost cried at that, gotta admit), and decide to pursue Spanish minors when I'm done with them.

It makes me happy.