Wednesday, 20 August 2008 00:00
Maybe more than anyone, Moms need balance. Yet with the multitude of never-ending tasks and responsibilities, balance can be hard to find. This problem becomes enhanced when a full-time working woman becomes a full-time Mom, sometimes leaving her feeling like she has no time for either. In many cases, women in this position of striving for balance find it difficult to cut back on their work hours, accommodate their children’s schedules, and give full attention to both jobs. Thus, many women give up their professional careers to become stay-at-home moms and focus on their children. But, besides the fact that many of these moms miss the challenges and adult interaction that comes from their prior jobs, this also means that companies miss out on the skills and expertise these women possess.
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With back to school season upon us, both parents and kids will start worrying about homework, tests, and report cards any day now. With two teenagers myself, I know how much more challenging it becomes to stay on top of this as your child gets older. Whether she simply doesn’t care to share or is embarrassed to ask for help, talking to your child about school can often feel like pulling teeth. Which makes parents uneasy - many remember a time when they hid report cards or changed grades when it came to their own parents. So how can parents stay on top of their kid’s schoolwork?
We tend to believe that our children remain unequivocally safe at home, whether playing catch in the yard or zoned-out in their own world, playing video games quietly upstairs. Yet this may be changing. Video game consoles such as Xbox, Wii, and PlayStation now all have Internet access that enables a gamer to connect with other players through chat rooms or text and video messages. Games such as Halo and Grand Theft Auto have become community games where users can log-on via the console and chat with other users or message each other for tips. And not only teenagers use these features; even kids elementary school aged and younger have used the chat capabilities on games rated too mature for them to play. Yet, even knowing this, I still found a recent USA Today article shocking. The article outlined the newest version of a parent’s worst nightmare: child predators using this new form of Internet access to prey on children. 
The age-old question, to be or not to be? At Mom Central, the answer remains clear: not "to be." 
Women everywhere dream of being “Soccer Moms.” The term, in fact, has come to represent those hands-on moms who do everything possible to ensure they remain deeply involved in their kids’ lives, no matter how busy they otherwise get. Soccer Moms, one can assume, are also PTA Moms, Carpool Moms, and Bake Sale Moms. But the term implies more than that. Soccer Moms (and Lacrosse Moms, Basketball Moms, Softball Moms, and so on) travel with video camera in hand (and have been known to turn warm-up footage into some great inspirational slide shows), spend time practicing with their kids on weekends (some even have a copy of the playbook), and, perhaps most importantly of all, can cheerlead with the best of them. These moms couldn’t wait for the day that their child first put on that adorable little uniform, laced up those cleats, and hit the field running (often in the wrong direction at first). It’s no surprise that moms everywhere race to sign up for the coveted Soccer Moms Club.