Happy New Year! If you have some time to catch up on some of the news we’ve shared each week, we suggest you start with these stories, which were some of the most memorable ones over the past year. Readers, which were some of your favorite news stories relevant to working moms (whether we covered them or not) during 2014?
- New York magazine looked at why making mom friends can be so hard. (Fast Company recently offered some advice on making friends as an adult, and although the article didn’t make it into one of our news roundups, it’s worth a read.)
- An essay in The New York Times pondered the “mommy” role and how it drives societal expectations of women who are mothers, while the NYT’s Motherlode blog followed with a great response on the lack of support for parents in general.
- And speaking of support for working moms, The Washington Post reviewed a report that shows companies offering generous maternity leave and flexible work arrangements may be satisfied that they’re already doing enough for women and fail to adequately support them in other ways. Meanwhile, Fortune suggested that the decision of former MongoDB CEO Max Schireson to step down into a less demanding role was an important step toward making the “having it all” discussion expand beyond women. (We shall see…)
- The Washington Post gave us a detailed list of tips on raising kind, compassionate kids, while the The New York Times’ Motherlode blog talked about the all-or-nothing approach to giving them our attention.
- A piece from The Huffington Post explained that the “default parent” is the person who schedules all the pediatrician appointments, researches schools and childcare and summer camp options, keeps track of the kids’ schedules, etc.
- In the Washington Post, a mother explains — after being questioned and criticized repeatedly — why she didn’t (and couldn’t) breastfeed.
- Things we laughed at this year: Scary Mommy presented a mom’s (stay-at-home-mom’s?) take on Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” The Toast gave you the essential guide to parenting-forum lingo, The Onion reported on a new “accommodation” for working moms (warning: autoplay video), and a new Tumblr, It’s Like They Know Us, went viral with its hilarious takes on stock photos of moms and families.
In case you missed it: We recently did a year-end news roundup over at Corporette as well –plus, check out this week’s news.