The Best of the Rest of the Web: Kids Are Weird, Multitasking, and Work-Flex Benefits

"I know we all have responsibilities as wives, mothers, employees, friends, and daughters. I know we are often pulled in 12 directions at one time on any given day, and that we learned how to effectively multitask around the same time we started using lip gloss. But when did we become so adept at meeting other people’s needs that we virtually ignore our own?"

—Rosemarie Coppola-Baldwin, a NYC-area lawyer and mom who resolved to stop putting everyone else first in the hopes of setting an example for her daughter that women can “be assertive while still being kind and responsible,” on her Mommy Vortex blog at rachelsimmons.com

"…flexible work options facilitate a productive process whereby people with lower stress and richer home lives perform better at work. (Indeed, a large body of research shows that using work-flex enhances job motivation and performance.)"

—Nanette Fondas (@NanetteFondas), mom of four and author of the book The Custom-Fit Workplace, in a post on The Harvard Business Review blogs entitled “After Your ‘Daddy Days’ End”; read it to see what happens after paternity leave—and to be surprised by all the compelling research she references

—panel from a funny new book by father-of-two Jeffrey Brown (jeffreybrowncomics.blogspot.com), Kids Are Weird And Other Observations from Parenthood (Chronicle); check it out for some madcap moments, including a few you may recognize but not automatically cop to (like the time your—umm, his—kid drew a bottle of wine with chalk on the sidewalk “because you like wine!”)

Twitter Talk @NYMetroParents

@RajdeepPaulus: If I wrote a story of teens who had to communicate without social media, would that be considered #historicalfiction? Just sayin… :) #FF

@NYMetroParents: Looking to find that work/parent
balance? Here are some tips to get you back on the job hunt! ht.ly/sL6fz

@dudetodad: I’m not sure who said, “don’t cry over spilled milk,” but they clearly didn’t see it happen 6 times in the same meal. Cry. #wisdomfordad

@RoomtoRead: New @UNICEF State of the World’s Children report emphasizes how data indicators can tell us about children’s lives. uni.cf/data

@mommyprayers: Thanks Catherine Newman, this needed saying=> @NYTMotherlode: Helmets: Because Their Thick Skulls Aren’t Thick Enough: nyti.ms/1bwF4Ed

@NayantaraS: Children’s lives and stories are important!
@brooklynhistory is archiving oral histories of kids in Brooklyn. More at bit.ly/1jqX6Qt