Telecommuting is the way to go....

The toughest issue for many families with young children has to be child care. Expensive, limited, sometimes unreliable, it can create havoc.

Ever since feminists have decreed that a woman's value and overall relevance is directly related to the size of her paycheck, women returning to the workplace have faced limited prospects for what to do with the kidlets while Mom finds relevance, works to pay the family's tax burden, etc.

Nannies are expensive, some childcare facilities can be pretty questionably managed, the nice older lady down the street doesn't have a structured program, grandma lives in another state, etc. etc. etc.

Two options are becoming more and more available, which at least gives mothers far more flexibility. Telecommuting and in-company daycare facilities.

More and more companies are putting truly top-notch facilities for employees' kids in their buildings or on their properties. Moms (and Dads) can go visit their kids during the day and Mom can even work out a breastfeeding schedule. Granted, it is not 100% motherhood fulltime, but it is better than nothing.

An even better option is telecommuting. BIG fan of telecommuting here. Been doing it for years.

The key with telecommuting and kids is multi-tasking and scheduling. What does that mean? Scheduling blocks of work around the kids' schedules, appointments, conference calls and meetings at certain times of the day and an ability to churn out work during naps and when the kids go to bed. Multi-tasking means getting more than one thing done almost at the same time -- becoming as efficient as possible.

And here's a big HINT -- It would be a tremendous advance for the telecommuting trend to offer a "telecommuter tax credit" to companies and individuals. Hey Congress, are you listening? Help a Mom out here, will ya?