Around the Watercooler

Want to commiserate about the Monday back to work blues or get tips on scheduling playdates from your desk? This is the place to quench your thirst for all things work/life related. Watercooler's editorial host is Jennifer Sey, the VP of global marketing for Dockers. She is joined by Vicki Larson, a journalist and single mom who writes at The OMG Chronicles Denise Berger, the global leader of the Women’s International Network (WIN) at Aon Corporation; and Kerry Rivera, a real mom from the "O.C." who is the Marketing and Advertising Manager for Toyota.

Working Moms Are Writing Your Favorite TV Shows & It Shows.

Sometimes, change is a catalyst for fearlessness. For Kari Lizer - creator and executive producer of the hit series "The New Adventures of Old Christine" taking a gamble by leaving a hit sitcom so she could create a television series of her own, proved to be the best change she's ever made in her career.

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Stop The War.

Everyone seems to be talking about these so-called Mommy Wars -- the battle between stay-at-home moms and working moms. Two books have been written on the subject in the last year, "The Truth About the Mommy Wars"  by Miriam Peskowitz and the new "Mommy Wars: Stay at Home and Career Moms Face off on their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families," by Leslie Morgan Steiner.

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Working Mom Issues On Grey's Anatomy.

Forget about all the hub-bub over Elizabeth Vargas' paper-thin "20/20" segment that was supposed to provide an in-depth look at the struggles of mothers and their work. Watch "Grey's Anatomy" instead. It's here -- on one of the few TV programs run by a real working mom of a small child -- that you'll get a down-to-earth dissection of contemporary motherhood and the working world, dovetailed by the consequences of those maternal decisions.

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Celebrity Moms Are Working Moms Too.

 Angelina Jolie just had Brad Pitt’s baby, making her a mother of three - Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, four-year-old Maddox and one-year-old Zahara. Will three under five be a crowd?

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On Having It All.

So here’s a question that echoes in many mommy minivans…Can working moms really “have it all?” You know what I’m talking about---the fulfilling career, perfectly harmonious family and even the (gasp!) social life?

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Working Moms: Not Guilty.

Not Guilty” is the title of a terrific book by Betty Holcomb, jam packed with what she calls “good news for working mothers.” The good news, to sum it up, is that kids don’t suffer when their mothers work outside the home.

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Become an Ecomom.

Just as our babies must learn to walk one step at a time, so must we walk our intentions one step at a time. To become an EcoMom start with one of these simple things, or jump in and do them all - just start. As President of the NRDC Action Fund, Frances Beinecke says "Leading scientists are telling us loud and clear that if we don't act now to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the window of opportunity will soon shut forever, and the outcome will be devastating."
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The Executive Mom's Answer to Childcare: The Stay At Home Dad.

This generation of working moms has a childcare option almost unheard of in previous decades: the Stay At Home Dad (playgroup code name “SAHD”). According to a Census Bureau report, full-time stay at home dads took care of 189,000 children in 2002, up 18 percent from 1994. These are married fathers with children under 15 who are not in the labor force primarily so they can care for kids while their wives work outside the home. more

And Nanny Makes Three.

I often joke that I was raised in the bosom of Island Women. That’s because my parents divorced when I was very young. With my dad out of the house and money tight, my mom needed to work—and her job required a lot of travel, which meant she also needed help taking care of me and my sister. Until I was 10, we always had live-in help, a.k.a. “The Nanny.” more

A Husband's Perspective on Working Mom Overdrive.

In my single days I was a complete failure with fast women. I’m not talking about the kind of ladies who moved through men like fire through a dry forest. I’m referring to females who make quick decisions, achieve goals rapidly, and grab all the life they can into their waking hours.

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