Campaigns tackle work-life issues/mommy brains best!

It’s refreshing that both campaigns recently were willing to take the time, even in the midst of an economic crisis, to talk about an issue that affects almost all Americans: work-life balance.  Ellen Galinsky of the Families and Work Institute got wonks from both sides on conference calls and tried to pin them down on what they’d actually do if elected. The notes are great reading. Both campaigns say they’d focus on health care, which is of course essential to all families. The Obama campaign says it would try to expand the family and medical leave act to allow leave for elder care, and to possible include some paid leave. Moreover they are supporting legislation that would mandate 7 paid sick days for employees.  They also say they would use the bully pulpit to encourage the quickly spreading reality of workplace flexibility.

The McCain campaign says it would not support mandated sick leave or expanding the family and medical leave act, but does support additional help for military families. And it would form a commission to study the benefits of flexibility and choice in the workplace, and then push businesses to see changes made.

The reality is there is only so much the federal government can do to tackle work-life issues. Health care, wage legislation, education–those things all matter enormously and do require government action. But in terms of flexibility, working from home, dialing careers up or down–those moves can really only be made by savvy businesses. But encouragement from the White House is always a good thing.

And great news from the University of Richmond in Virginia.  Researchers have found that having kids actually rewires a woman’s brain–improving our mental agility and our health!!!

Yes, yes–we have all experienced that sense of mommy amnesia–where during pregnancy and just after we can’t seem to remember where we put everything from car keys to our ability to think. But it turns out that our brains are undergoing renovation at that point–to cope with the many new demands they will have to take on, says Craig Kinsley, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Richmond.

He found that the nerve cells in areas known to be linked to parenting had grown larger and had more connections with other cells, giving us more "computing" power.

Seems there’s science behind the legendary "juggling" ability of moms!

Oh–and for us older moms? The BU medical school found that women who became pregnant after 40 are 4 times more likely to live to 100. 

Claire