Working mothers are not crackheads. Having children is not just another lifestyle choice. If we want to keep this little human experiment going, then we need a sizable chunk of the population to keep having children.

I can't think of a better way to say this. I had a truly crappy Mother's Day this year. I think Anna Jarvis would understand. Inspired by her own mother's life, she started a campaign in 1907 to recognize mothers for their contribution to society. She was successful in making Mother's Day a national holiday, but then spent the rest of her life fighting its commercial exploitation. She died in an asylum when she was 84. A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then...

Meet my Uncle Peter. He's a really cool guy who happens to be an employee rights lawyer in New York and has talked with more than a thousand women and men about their work lives over the course of his career. He has a theory about why conditions are so difficult for working moms.

Becoming a parent means there are new demands on our time and for many of us, we feel strangely disloyal to our jobs after we have kids. And yet, many of us become better employees. So why do mothers make only 68% of what men earn? And forgetting about the disgraceful pay inequity for a moment, why is it that we feel so horribly guilty when we skulk out of the office at 4:30 to pick up our kids from daycare? Could these two things (guilt and pay inequity) be related?