I am ridiculously glad to find that Catherine Newman has started a blog. Reading her weekly postings on parentcenter has become so much a part of life that I was really upset to read two weeks ago that her journal there was coming to an end. Someone I have never met, and who lives on a different continent, feels like a friend. We share a number of paranoias -- thank you Catherine -- I was able to display your posts to my husband as evidence that, no, I am not the only person on the planet with germ phobia and stomach flu phobia.

I live in the UK and work full-time. I have two children, aged two and four, girl and boy respectively. And life sometimes feels good, and sometimes feels less good. Sometimes I ache with resentment that we make a loss on my husband working part-time (I am underwriting his underpaying employers, and subsidising their lousy pay scale), and other times it feels like the right compromise. Sometimes I wish I was underwritten by a high earning partner, as it feels like many women I know (both working and not) are; other times I am better balanced, and just feel that what we do is what we do, that it is right -- well, at least OK -- that the cost of childcare is greater than my husband's take home pay, and that I am glad he is able to keep on working.

It's nearly 9pm here, and I need to go and do some work, preparation for business tomorrow. And I'm tired, but privileged. I do an interesting, challenging job, and even sometimes get paid for it. Eventually. So no more moaning tonight.