The Rise of the Village

I read an interesting piece in Sunday's New York Times today (yes, it takes me all week to get through Sunday's Times), A Commune Grows in Brooklyn. In the article, Jed Lipinski details all of the collaborative living arrangements cropping up in "DIY Brooklyn." Long the stomping ground of hipsters, the "breeders" are now forming home school cooperatives, growing public roof top gardens and even collectively running bike shops. Driven by the economic realities of the Great Recession, the grandchildren of the Depression are living the "many hands make light work" mantra.

In my own decidedly less trendy neighborhood, the 3 other families of 5 at my bus stop have formed a weeknight meal swap. Each night, Monday through Thursday, one of us cooks for 20 and we hand off meals at the 4pm bus stop. 3 of the 4 moms work outside the home (albeit with flexible schedules) and the 4th has 2 under 2 at home and works harder than the other 3 of us combined, so this was not about being hipper-than-thou, healthier meal prep or cost savings, but more about the logistics of getting dinner on the table at 5:30 when dance class is at 6 and Dad isn't home till 7 (thank you DC rush hour.) Cook one night (or the night before, my average time commitment is around 90 minutes) and the rest of the nights hot dinner is delivered. Fridays is leftover buffet night, and if we've had a particularly ravenous week, pizza delivery. Brilliant.

We've had all sorts of delicious food outside of my normal weeknight repertoire and I haven't heard a single "roast chicken....again?" out of my brood. We're swapping gladware and pyrex, family recipes and generally collectively lightening the load.

I'd love to hear from our readers on how other folks are working together to make working families work. Is it a MS Excel-worthy carpooling spreadsheet? Farmshare pick up split? What's working and where could you use more help? Because there's no reason we should do this alone.

Great Meal Planning Resource

Regular blog readers know I've solved the weeknight what's-for-dinner question with a neighborhood meal swap and I'm making chicken taco bowls for tomorrow's dinner. I found this recipe from a terrific resource called Budget Bytes which of course I found on Pinterest (the website that allows me to be much more creative and fabulous than I actually am!).

This website has a whole host of recipes with reviews and the cost per serving. It's really well-organized (including 181 vegetarian recipes and 18 gluten-free meals!) and really demonstrates that with a little planning, healthy, delicious meals are much less expensive than anything from a package or out of the freezer.

Why Women (and we!) Love Pinterest

No one would call the Momentum Resources folks technology gurus, but it's well-documented that we were all very early adopters of Pinterest. Wildly pinning away while our husbands glanced over our laptops in the evening, my business partners and I have spent the last year or so building Boards on everything from bake sale recipes to the perfect business casual meeting outfit. Which is harder than a plain ol' navy suit any day!

And why have we spent so much time - our most precious commodity- on Pinterest? Because we just don't have enough time to be creative for all of the demands in our life. While taking a break from planning a dinner party with business associates I look for new recipes for next week's Meal Swap. When my four year old begs to dress up like a star-bellied sneetch for Dr. Seuss Week in Pre-K, I'm scanning the Boards to see if anyone else out there has had to come up with Seuss costume after bedtime with materials already on hand.

Sure I can eek out a little creativity on my latest knitting project or even on a driveway chalk masterpiece with my boys, but Pinterest allows me to be way more fabulous than I already am. Look no further for juice-box robots for your next 5 year old birthday party, or exactly the right hammock for your garden this summer. Someone else has already figured it out and shared it openly with the world. This wide-open community approach to solving all of our (admittedly first world) problems has taken what used to exist in neighborhood coffee klatches and list servs and expanded it into a large social network that's displayed in a clean, visually appealing format. Or, more dangerously, on your smart phone.

I know that the business model is untested (revenue anyone?) and copyright issues abound for artists, but right now Pinterest helps me solve many of my daily challenges that had otherwise taken up significant brainpower and emotional energy.

No, Pinterest can't revive the fried share drive in the office or get my 9 year old to focus on his darned math homework, not yet anyway, but somehow lending ideas and inspiration to the other challenges in my day-to-day activities breathes new life for solutions to my offline problems.

Here's what I had to say about Pinterest to NPR. What's the best way you have used Pinterest?

Please Don't "Take it Like a Mom"

I'm a huge fan of Forbes Girl Friday blog, and loved the content of this week's post. But the title- Should Overwhelmed Working Women Ask for Help or "Take it Like a Mom?" is maybe the silliest question I've heard all day. That's like asking a drowning person if they wouldn't mind using a life raft.

I've blogged in the past about these exact themes, that just because you can do it all doesn't mean you should, that you should put down your cape Super Mom, that you must make time for yourself. But how, as Forbes Girl Friday Meghan Casserly points out, can you do that if you are working on average 11 more hours per week than your parents did in the 1970s AND spending on average 12 hours more per week with your children than your partners? It stands to reason the stress levels are sky-rocketing.

Bottom Line: Ask for Help.

• Engage your partner: According to a recent study by Boston College, the majority of Dads want to be more involved in home life and parenting. So let them. Play to their strengths, give them a job, and don't criticize the end-result.
• Build Your Village: Whether's it's something like the Bus Stop Meal Swap I put together with the other 3 moms of 3 on my block or an involved grandparent or the Dads in your carpool, put together your support system. Do for them what you will need for you: kid pickups when a work meeting runs late, an errand by your office, meals when you're sick.
• Investigate Flexible Work Options: Flexible work options come in all shapes and sizes and every organization and every employee has different needs and tolerance levels. Find the match between the two parties. Even telecommuting one day per week in the Washington, D.C. metro area will give you back, on average, 2 hours. Imagine what you can do in TWO WHOLE HOURS!

Super Mom is possible but it's not hot.