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For many mothers who want to go back to work outside the home, part time work seems to be the key to a manageable life. In WNYC's on-going series on work and family life, "The Juggling Act," commentator Kate Moses says working part-time offers mothers the illusion of time without actually giving them enough of it to improve their lives.

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Mothers who work part time soon find that Helen Gurley Brown's curse on the modern woman, the tiresome catchphrase "you can have it all," has transmogrified into "you have to do it all." On paper, the trade of time for money seems straightforward, but in practice you may be getting pinched in more places than just your wallet. Did your professional responsibilities really shrink with your paycheck, or will you start feeling like the "I Love Lucy" episode at the candy factory, with Lucy shoving chocolates down the front of her uniform because she couldn't keep up with the conveyor belt?

At home, there are often more expectations placed on you -- both consciously and subconsciously -- once you've cut down your hours elsewhere. The delegating, outsourcing and takeouting you took in stride when you were working full-time rarely make the same sense when you've downsized your income and, at least theoretically, got more time. My own fantasy is that after I neatly end my early workday to pick up my children after school, I'll spend the afternoon supervising art projects or heading for the park or thumbing through Pottery Barn catalogs. In reality, my older son does his homework in the car in the grocery store parking lot while I drag his little sister through our weekly shopping odyssey. Later, at home, I can't relax. I'm too busy cleaning -- since I fired the cleaning service -- or making dinner -- since we can't afford anything but the occasional pizza -- or organizing PTA events I now feel too guilty to ignore. Or I'm dragging all the unread Pottery Barn catalogs out to the curb.

The part-time dilemma is this: When you're at work, no one takes you seriously because they know by virtue of your part-time status that you've put your family ahead of your career. Then at home, you're expected to do the lion's share of household maintenance since you've "got the time." Meanwhile, the playground culture dismisses you as a "part-time mother" because you have another life at your job. If you work part-time, you're working just as hard to please everyone but you don't get any respect.

So why am I still working part-time? It's that dream of time that I crave -- a dream fueled by the siren song of a part-time schedule. Time is a working mother's most precious resource; tenaciousness and eternal optimism are her most well-worn tools. If I can't stop time, I'm determined to pause it occasionally. So I cling to my unlikely goal of a fulfilling career combined with afternoons of loafing with my kids. I might make myself sick trying, but I won't have to call in sick if I succeed.

Juggling Act main page | Talk to Kate | Listen

(You need RealPlayer7 to listen to this commentary. Click here to download it free.)

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