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    How Work-Life Balance Is Like the George Bush Center for Intelligence (Oxymorons R Us)

    Posted Friday, January 09, 2009 12:40 PM | By Melinda Henneberger
    Dahlia, when you give these work-life balance talks, do you tell the young women who've come to hear you the unvarnished truth? Because I'd have to say that I tend to accentuate the happier truth (that writing is one of the most flexible careers around, girls, because you can tailor and re-tailor it to meet your ever-changing needs!) over those other, unhappier true facts: And your childless colleagues will resent the hell out of you, while you more or less constantly reproach yourself for falling short both at home and at work. While I agree with Dana that there's plenty to be done in terms of restructuring the American workplace to make it more family-friendly, even in the most accommodating circumstances, stories don't write themselves and kids need you when they need you. But you know what? Lucky, lucky us if that is our worst problem. Marjorie Williams wrote a great column about this one time, to the effect that what the complaining childless people don't get is that part of their compensation is: they don't have to deal with children. And that what complaining people with children tend to forget is: part of our compensation is that we do.

     

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