Have you read about the study showing that kids pick up the slack on housework when their fathers work longer hours? For each extra hour a father spends at work, his children do two more minutes of housework a week on average, the researchers found, but the same doesn’t hold true when it’s moms out at work more.

The research study, involving more than 3500 families where both husband and wife work full-time outside the home, appears in November’s Journal of Family Issues. On average, the moms in the study worked 37 hours a week and the husbands 47 hours a week.

I would be fascinated to see a similar study focusing on households where single moms are raising the kids, especially since I am about to start a new, full-time job in ten days. Will my 4 and 8-year old sons do more chores when I work more? It may be time to refocus on the “chores chart” we made four months ago, which outlines the boys’ bi-weekly chores (the weeks the cleaning lady is off, they’re on) and which they used to tackle with gusto. I’m the one who hasn’t been disciplined enough to enforce it.

As my time at home dwindles, what else can I do to ensure the kids start helping around the house more? The study also found that the more parents stress about work-life balance, the more housework children do. Relief..if my stress shows just a little bit, they’ll get to work, and I don’t have to feel guilty that I’m not putting on a happy face every second of the day! Shouldn’t boys learn the art of juggling — just a little bit?

Women constitute nearly half the work force in this country, approximately 47 percent, yet many moms feel conflicted about working outside the home, according to a recent report by the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project.

With back-to-school season sliding into a chilly fall, I have found yet another thing to feel conflicted and guilty about: fear of my kids getting sick and the domino effect of me having to miss work. With fear and trepidation, I just opened another email from my four-year-old’s preschool director fearing another illness outbreak. Sure enough, on the heels of yesterday’s announcement of Lice running rampant through the classroom, Hand, Foot & Mouth disease has also been diagnosed.

Sitting here sneezing away, I’ve been fighting a cold that’s getting worse by the hour. (And I am no doubt annoying my new officemate on his first day, but that’s another story.) I can fight through it, but if my little guy gets nits in his hair or rashes on his hands, we can’t put a happy face on it. He will have to stay home – and so will I.

While this is the reality of being a working mom, I long for the days when I freelanced at home and didn’t really have to report into anyone that I couldn’t “come to work.” I am so worried about possibly having to miss work that I could actually use a mental health day to calm down about it. Then I feel guilty about wanting that.

Maybe I should just come down with the flu – which I might. I can’t get a flu shot for another ten days.