contrary to popular belief

We working women often feel guilty about having our kids in day care and not spending more time with. General societal messages - and homemaker moms - also do a good job at reinforcing this theme.

Yet facts tell a very different story. I just read a very interesting article in the New York Times, based on a study by the census bureau. Apparently, we working women actually spend more time actively engaging with our kids then our non-working predecessors use to do. How? We sleep less. How about that for dedication :-) Not sure this is a sign of progress though... kind of sad when you think about it, but at least, more ammo to get over that sometimes naggingly guilty feeling.

Here's an exerpt from the article.
"What happened on the road to gender equality?" said Suzanne Bianchi, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. "A lot of work happened."
Bianchi, who studies time-use surveys done by the Census Bureau and others, has concluded that contrary to popular belief, the broad movement of women into the paid labor force did not come at the expense of their children. Not only did fathers spend more time with children, but working mothers, she found, spent an average of 12 hours a week on child care in 2003, an hour more than stay-at-home mothers did in 1975.
Instead, mothers with children at home found the time for outside work by taking it from other parts of their day. They also worked more overall. Bianchi found that employed mothers, on average, worked at home and on the job a total of 15 hours more a week and slept 3.6 fewer hours than those who were not employed."