Happy Labor Day. Hope you enjoy this newish music video of “Rosie The Riveter” by The Four Vagabonds, with subtitles.

Virginia Miola, crane operator at Watertown Arsenal in Water Town, MA

How can you explain Labor Day to your kids? Try The Washington Post’s The Answer Sheet here.

For more info: Rosie the Riveter: Women Working During the Second World War. Photo from NPS.

Background: Why do we get Labor Day off? Slate’s Brendan Koerner explains.

Phaedra Cucina is a working mom advocate and the author of the  acclaimed children’s book,My Mommy’s on a Business Trip.

In this guest blog post, she provides advice on how to put the best positive outlook on business travel that takes you away from your home and family.

Business trips are rough on kids.  Yet they’re an almost inevitable part of a professional woman’s career.

A defining moment for me was when my oldest daughter was three.  I had traveled for work since she was born, but for some reason, this day – this trip – was different.  She wailed.  She pounded her tiny fists on the floor.  She braced her little body against the front door.  She was very clear – I was leaving and she was mad.  The worst part was that after many good-byes, when I finally had to leave or risked missing the plane, she followed me out my front door and onto the driveway, begging me not to go.

Standing on the porch, with my daughter back inside the house and the front door locked so she couldn’t follow me out again, I could still hear her crying.  It broke my heart.  I thought to myself that no child, or parent, should have to go through this.

When working moms travel, Teddy's company is always welcome, photo by Julie Power, MomstoWork.com

The guilt can be enormous, I have to admit, as is the stress of trying to balance what needs to happen while you’re gone along with the work you’re headed towards.

5 ways to make the trip easier for mom, easier on your kids

Here are some easy suggestions to make your next trip easier (emphasis on easy!):

1. Pack Together – let your child/ren pick out a special stuffed animal or token you can take with you.  One mom shared with me that her three-year old always pick out a special hair ribbon to tie on the suitcase, and it changes with every trip.  BFF bracelets, or other special things that both you and the child will have while you’re gone, help them feel connected to you.
2. Create a Ritual – if you’re gone often, ask the caretaker to do something with your kids that’s extra special and only happens when you’re away.  It could be going to a special place or as simple as getting to sleep in sleeping bags on the living room floor.
3. Pucker Up! – If you won’t be gone long, put on bright red lipstick and give the kids a great big kiss on their tummies – no one will know it’s there but them!  Temporary tattoos work great for this, too – especially if you’re on a bigger trip.  Put it on them as a special reminder of you.
4. Call Early – So often it’s hard to catch the kids in the evening, with meetings running late or business dinners.  Kids are often already asleep before you can make the call.  Instead, call when the kids are just getting up.  That’s when they’re in that lovey, snuggly mindset and you can start their day off with a smile.   Kids won’t talk? Try reading them their favorite story (be sure to pack a copy of the book in your suitcase!)
5. Capture Their Minds – You likely showed them where you were going before you left.  Once back, don’t forget to share the fun – spend time talking about the famous or typical things you did in the area of the country/world where you were.  Go over the maps again, pull out your camera, or bring home some postcards and really capture their imaginations.

Once the kids feel better about you being away, you’ll feel better.  I’ve got a trip to Asia coming up in October and it will be during an especially stressful time for my family.  To keep all of us sane, I will use these ideas. I’ll also focus on the silver lining – my nights of uninterrupted night’s sleep, that the kids and their dad get some important bonding time, and that I’m modeling for my kids how to handle a busy, successful career.

What’s critically important is that all of us as working parents remember to always position work in a positive light – not something that takes us away from our kids – as these young hearts and minds will eventually enter the workforce themselves one day.

Please share yours travel stories and tips here as well.  I’m always amazed at how stories, and great ideas on how to make trips easier, pour out whenever I ask women how they feel about business travel.  This is a topic women want and need to talk about, but rarely do.

About our guest blogger: Phaedra Cucina is a working mom advocate and the author of the acclaimed children’s book, My Mommy’s on a Business Trip, (Amazon) which is also available at: Mommytrip.com.  You can follow her at @mommytrip.

Looking for cities where young women earn more than men? Yes, it is possible!

Tell your daughters and young friends to try Atlanta, Memphis and New York. They’re just a few of the cities where young, college-educated women are earning more than men.

Tell your daughters! Pay equity is closer than ever

“The greatest disparity is in Atlanta, where young, childless women made 121% of their male counterparts, according to Reach Advisors,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

See how different cities stack up, including Washington DC, Sacramento and Columbus, OH,  on a very cool chart from the Wall Street Journal blog.

The Wall Street Journal says in 2008, single, childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities, with incomes that were 8% greater on average, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Wednesday by Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm in Slingerlands, N.Y.

Also, women tend to see wages stagnate or fall after they have children, comments the Journal.

Ain’t that the truth? Before I had kids, in the stone age, I made nearly twice as much as my husband.

Did you ever earn more than your husband, spouse or partner? Rant, rave or make a civilized comment below please.

Read more: WSJ

Here’s a case worth watching.

USA Today’s Jayne O’Donnell reports: Wal-Mart (WMT) asked the Supreme Court last week to dump a class-action lawsuit against it that the retailer says is the largest employment suit ever.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that Wal-Mart should face charges in court that it pays women less than men for the same jobs.

The lawsuit, which covers all female workers at Wal-Mart since 1998, could cost the company billions if it loses, says USA Today.

“The rights of millions of women are at stake.”

Female Wal-Mart employees, who lodged the original action, say women earn less and take longer to get promoted.

“It’s an extremely significant case,” says former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission general counsel Eric Dreiband, who is not involved in the lawsuit. “The rights of millions of women are at stake.”

Read more: USA Today.

Our guest blogger, Julie Cole, is a force! She runs Mabel’s Labels,has six kids and, somewhat remarkably, appeared sane and balanced in my short meeting with her at BlogHer2010.  We convinced her to debunk four common myths facing female entrepreneurs …

Maternity leave gives women the opportunity to step away — if only temporarily — from the traditional workforce. But suddenly, baby’s first birthday is around the corner and it’s time to start planning. The questions begin: Where will baby go to daycare? How will I transition from being a stay at home mom to being a working mom?

A strange phenomenon can occur at this point – Mama starts thinking about alternatives.

Julie Cole, mompreneur, with one of her six children, Clancy

Maybe she has an urge to stay-at-home or perhaps a small business idea, which has been nagging at her seems possible. This is where more questions arise. The timing is perfect, but can it happen? What would her family think? How could they afford to have her drop out of the workforce? Is she willing to take the risk? Where would she start?

Speaking as a weathered Mom Entrepreneur, I thought it appropriate to share some of my Mabel’s Labels experiences.

Over seven years ago, Mabel’s Labels was created when I got together with three other moms and we put our clever little business plan into action. Mabel has felt like another child we have nurtured along with our other children.

The 4 big myths

We belong to a huge network of Mama customers, friends and entrepreneurs — here are some of the thoughts that swirl around taking the plunge into becoming a Mom Entrepreneur.

MYTH No. 1: I am going to have more time to spend with my beautiful children. I will be able to talk to customers while the baby naps, breastfeed while reading reports, and go on play-dates around meetings. I may even volunteer at the nursery school co-op a couple of mornings a week!

REALITY: While you may have more time with the children, you don’t actually have more time. What you now have is flexibility. Flexibility is what allows you to drop the kids off at school or go to the park in the afternoon. What it doesn’t do is get your work done and tuck you into bed at a decent hour. Trading time for flexibility has its drawbacks. The play-date you do in the afternoon equals sitting at the computer til the wee hours. The result is a pretty exhausted Mom Entrepreneur, which can make that activity you do with the kids less enjoyable for everyone.

As for thinking you will make phone calls during nap time — you may need to re-consider that one. If your children are like mine, they have an internal sensor that notifies them when there is an important phone call being made. In my experience, this career path is best suited to those who are not too hung up on getting sleep and are very functional without it.

MYTH No. 2: It will be fantastic to be my own boss and set my own rules. I won’t be accountable to anyone or have to report what I’m doing or where I’m going. Bring on the freedom!

REALITY: It’s true you are not likely going to fire yourself, but that is where the job security ends. If you’re not accountable to everyone you have business dealings with, the business will fail. So while there may not be one single boss breathing down your neck, there will be numerous other “bosses” who hold even more power — the ability to make or break your business. At Mabel’s Labels, our list of “bosses” is endless and includes customers, staff, suppliers, business partners, just to name a few. Suddenly one nagging boss doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

MYTH 3: I don’t have the money to start a business

REALITY: Clearly this aspect will be different for every business plan, but don’t assume that because you want to start a business it’s going to cost a bomb. Many Mom Entrepreneurs have started successful businesses on buttons and pocket lint. Women are not inclined to go to banks and get big loans to start a business. We prefer to hit up the people close to us – parents, husbands, partners, neighbors, innocent by-standers. Many successful Mom Entrepreneur start-ups are the direct result of “love money.”

“Many successful Mom Entrepreneur start-ups are the direct result of love money,” says Julie Cole, founder of Mabel’s Labels.

So before writing yourself off as an Entrepreneur, sit down and budget what you need to start your business. You may be surprised by the resources you can tap.

MYTH 4: Working alone will be isolating. I’ll miss interacting with adults and the office social scene.

REALITY: You may not be attending power lunches or catching after work drinks on a Friday, but you are hardly alone. The Internet provides Mom Entrepreneurs endless opportunity to research, network, blog, message and Facebook. It allows you to communicate with customers, peers, colleagues, moms and experts. The best part is no one will ever know that you are doing it all from the comfort of your home while wearing pajamas soaked in sour milk. The Internet provides resources that never clock out. Once ensconced in the Mom Entrepreneur scene, you quickly discover the invaluable network the Internet provides both professionally and socially.

Is the Mom Entrepreneur lifestyle for you? That may be up for debate. It is certainly not for everyone and there is a lot to consider. For me the answer was clear — though you can often find me hunched over my computer well-past midnight, I wouldn’t trade foggy-brained afternoon playdates for anything.

Julie Cole is the Co-Founder of Mabel’s Labels Inc. and the mother of six. She blogs at Mabelhood and the BabyMachine. Find her on twitter: @juliecole

My pledge to stay sane when the kids return to school:

“I’m too busy to make lunches every day: The kids will survive occasional canteen crap.

I’m too busy to worry that our house looks like the target of a Scud missile strike every afternoon …

I’m too old to worry about looking fab all the time.  Love me as I am.

I am always too busy to read every e-mail response copied to everyone on the class list.

I’m too busy and

… too sane …

to worry as much as I do about making home-cooked meals every day.

And I am old enough, bold enough and rude enough to say NO when the work life juggle gets crazy. (Sing it with me, NO!)

But I’m not too busy to make the time to sit down and talk to my kids after school, draw with them and make sure they do their home work.

And I’m rarely to busy to sit at the dinner table, and talk, no matter how modest the meal, with my family and my friends.”

How do you plan to survive the return to school? What are your promises?

These cards will have pride of place on my fridge. They’re part of a wonderful series by OliveSandwiches.com, matching retro images with modern themes.

I resign as general manager of the universe!

Also loved this one:

Reminded me of our MomstoWork video: Moms say NO!

Can you say no? Do you say no? Or are you always the one who says yes and regrets it later? The old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” seems to often ring true for me.

Or does guilt drive you to say yes to your children? Go on, vent in the comments field. If I like what you say, I am going to buy you a card and send it to you in the mail — yes, I will go to the Post Office for YOU.

Psst: I found these at Barnes and Noble in Bethesda.

They'll be such a hit at the playgroup

Our children are special, to us, but this is going too far.

We can now buy designer Huggies or Pampers’ diapers, including some by designer Cynthia Rowley,  but you’ll be paying 60% more for the cute factor.

Your baby as a fashion accessory?

Diapers or nappies are nothing more than a parcel of poop, a pouch full of piss or a very heavy anchor restraining an energetic toddler from breaking out of home.

One of the loveliest things about babies is their complete disregard for convention:  their delight in the wrapping rather than the parcel, the dirt rather than the flower or the dog’s dinner rather than the carefully prepared and pureed organic vegetables steamed in a beautiful Le Creuset pan.

Babies are perfect as they are.  Old-fashioned white, cloth diapers make us look at the beautiful round baby and not what’s inside the package.

Cynthia Rowley says about her designer Pampers diapers for Target:

“As a mom, I wanted other moms and dads to have more options in every part of their lives — even diapers. It’s the first piece of clothing your baby will ever wear, and it should be special.”

Yes, it’s special because it is an effective way to move poop from a bottom to the toilet.

Cynthia, your baby is special. The diaper isn’t.

My friend Dr. Julie Donovan,  says this is turning babies into a fashion accessory, a bit like Paris Hilton carrying a little chihuahua in a plaid Burberry coat. OOOOHHHHH so cute!!!!!! puke.

And then we started talking about why babies wear white nappies, about how kids in China have slits or zips in their pants, and learn how and where to go very early, and how babies in Africa just do it on their mommy’s knee — and then the mom cleans it up with an old corn husk.

Would you pay more for cute diapers? Do you use cloth diapers? Is your baby your best fashion accessory?

Read more about this trend to turn diapers into a fashion accessory in The Born Identity by  Rob Walker of The New York Times.

Click: Target to see how the prices for Rowley Pamper diapers are  much higher on a per unit basis.

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