Let's make one thing clear right from the start. ALL moms are working moms.

This community, however, is devoted to mothers who work outside the home. We face many challenges that are different from those faced by stay-at-home moms or moms who work at home. Hopefully, we'll soon have communities for these groups too.

We are at the crest of a great wave of social change. For the first time in history, a majority of mothers are working at jobs outside their homes. At the same time, most of us are still primarily responsible for what goes on in the home. No wonder we're overwhelmed and stressed out!

Until flex-time, reasonable parental leave policies and a more equitable sharing of responsibilities at home become realities, we working moms will be spending too much energy juggling too many responsibilities. Let's reach out and help each other get through this transition period.

Here we can meet, share resources for getting it all done, ideas for juggling home and family, tips for getting and staying organized, creative ways to spend meaningful time with our kids and partners, ways to nurture ourselves and to give ourselves much-needed breaks.

We're kicking off this community with some ideas I got from friends just before I started this job as director of the Parent Center at WholeFamily - my first full-time job in 15 years! Click on Help for Working Moms from Those Who Know.

We want this to be YOUR community. So please write to us or post notices on the Working Moms' Discussion Board telling us how you'd like to make this corner of the web work for you.

Copyright Ruth Mason, 2000