We mothers are learning to mark our mothering success by our daughters' lengthening flight.

Boys don't make passes at female smart asses.

If knowledge is power, clandestine knowledge is power squared; it can be withheld, exchanged, and leveraged.

I used to anticipate my childhood birthday parties as if each were an annual coronation. Like most kids, I loved sitting at the head of the table with a crown on my head.

We mothers are learning to mark our mothering success by our daughters' lengthening flight.

Mothers remember a child's first words, and quote them in tones usually reserved for Byron.

The all American work ethic, destructive enough by itself, also packs a gender double standard that strip-mines the natural resources of both parents. It has taught us that as their earnings and success increase, men become "more manly," while women become "less feminine." This perverse cultural dynamic gives fathers an incentive to stay away from their families and kill themselves at work, while coercing mothers to limit their career commitment, which in turn limits their wages and shortchanges their families.