Attila the Honey I'm Home by Kristin van Ogtrop

            Significantly impacted by her personal struggles as a working mom, Kristin van Ogtrop's book Attila the Honey I'm Home is a narrative that highlights the hardships of doing the double duty of worker and mother.   As a highly successful businesswoman and literary scholar, Ogtrop's purpose for writing the text is to bring consciousness to the harsh realities of the double duty and the work it takes to excel as a working mother.   Ogtrop goes further to also argue that women should have the right to do it all if they so choose.   According to her, not only does she work because she has to financially but also because she loves to work and gets enormous self satisfaction from career success.   Ogtrop's views as a passionate businesswoman and overwhelmed mother influence the development of the text's thesis, that balancing family and career is difficult, particularly for women who are typically the primary caregivers in the family unit.   Thus, after working an eight-hour workday, women come home to another eight-hour workday of caring for the well-being of their children.   Ogtrop's book presents personal observations and biographical accounts to support the thesis of the text.   She uses her personal experiences as evidence to prove the arguments that she makes.   Ogtrop's article is a great reference for mothers who, whether or not by choice, are in the workplace.   - B.D.

This article is a case example of a mother who is trying to balance both her life at home and at work.   The woman notes that it is interesting how she is wonderful at work; she is able to juggle all her tasks while still smiling and being positive, while she is moody and frustrated at home, especially with her children.   She realizes that her work is actually an escape from all of her obligations at home.
            This article gives an interesting perspective on the life of the working mother.   Often women who aspire to have a family and a career are lead to believe that it can be possible with hard-work and occasionally some help.   However, while this article shows that it is possible, it illustrates just how upset and stressed the mother really is.   This article truly shows the reader just how much the working mother is required to balance, even with the help of her husband and a nanny.  
            I would recommend this article to any woman interested in becoming a working mother.   Not that I would want to deter her from this lifestyle, but I think that this article provides an interesting perspective of this dual role.   - A.B.

This article distinguishes the separation of roles, home vs. work. A full-time worker, mother and spouse, the author retells the accounts of her daily life, the frustrations of her multi-varied roles, and life as a perpetual cycle of time management. The author expresses her frustrations as both a mother and a spouse and how frequently there is overlap in the roles she chooses to perform. The author reveals a binary relationship that many women working full-time may face--the relationship between her and her co-workers and the relationship with both spouse and children. The vast separation between the ways in which a woman is viewed at home or on the job creates an internal struggle for many of these working women. Women are expected to maintain a round the clock, "you're unflappable" behavior but are often limited to such high standards because of daily stress. The article greatly emphasizes that roles women play at home tend to translate while on the job. Amid the endless list of tasks performed behind a desk, or in front of a news camera, women who are mothers may fall into habits of "mothering" on the job. This behavior establishes feelings of women's inadequacy as mothers when they return home to a demanding spouse and children. The many roles that these women assume on a daily basis demand the need for putting their wants and desires last and those of their family and coworkers first. To establish a balance where women feel they are performing as mothers who are not "always angry" and "unflappable" employees is an extremely challenging, tiresome feat. -B.M.

This article is interesting in that it shows a woman deals with having a very intense career, in this case as the editor of a woman's magazine, and being a mother. Even with the help of a nanny, she still struggles to get everything done. This is another piece where a woman describes her typical day with frustration and angst about messes, and tears, and fights. It is sad to see that someone like this woman with a high-stress job, would rather be at work than at home, because she has more control and is seen as cool and competent, but when it comes to being a mother she feels less adequate. Calling herself "her father with ovaries", she feels like she never truly "learned" how to be a mother because of her work and having a nanny, and expresses her guilt for being a career woman. - K.B.

          The author of this piece begins with a look at a day in her life.   She wrestles with both her children and her executive job.   At work, she receives more compliments than what she receives from her family on parenting.   She compares herself to her father saying, "I am like my father except with ovaries."   But the distance between the two lies in the fact that her father never questioned his identity as a parent like the author.   For her, she feels guilt for having an outside job.   It is a woman's personal story perhaps suggesting the cycle women are placed in every time. -N.S.