Dads influence on their daughters’ career paths

A February 23 post by the New York Times highlights a University of Maryland study that finds that today’s fathers seem to play a bigger role in their daughters’ career choices compared to men of previous generations

According to the Times, the researchers “used various data sets to study the career paths of 63,000 women born between 1909 and 1977. About 6 percent of women born in the first decade of the study worked in the same field as their fathers. But about 18 percent of women born in the last decade of the study followed their fathers’ footsteps.”

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Mad at Dad

The most popular online article at Parenting.com over the last couple weeks was and still is “Mad at Dad: We love our husbands – so why are we so angry at them, so often?” by Martha Brockenbrough. Based on a survey of 1,000 moms from MomConnection, an online opinion panel, Brockenbrough has tapped into the hidden, or not so hidden anger of young moms.

“We love our husbands,” she writes, “but we’re mad that we spend more mental energy on the details of parenting. We’re mad that having children has turned our lives upside down much more than theirs. We’re mad that these guys, who can manage businesses or keep track of thousands of pieces of sports trivia, can be clueless when it comes to what our kids are eating and what supplies they need for school. And more than anything else, we’re mad that they get more time to themselves than we do.”

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“A Father’s Promise” airs this Sunday

12 years ago NBC News produced "Labor Day," an award-winning documentary about the alarming rise of inner city children growing up without fathers. It began with the deliveries of three babies born over a 72-hour period at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, one of the places where the rate of absentee fathers was especially high. These fathers all made promises to be there with for their child as he or she grew up.

Now, MSNBC has gone back to find out whether these three fathers kept that promise. "A Father's Promise" premieres on Sunday, February 8 at 8 PM ET on MSNBC. Also in the documentary, a cross-section of African-Americans, including NBC's Al Roker and Tiki Barber, come together for a round-table discussion of the situations and issues presented in the program. You can check out some extra clips of the roundtable discussion that you won't get to see in the documentary through this link.

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A better way to downsize?

There has got to be a better way to downsize. In a recent blog post Cali Williams Yost, CEO and Founder of Work+Life Fit, Inc. recommends a three-tiered, more flexible approach to downsizing that goes beyond job cuts. These options include reduced schedules, job sharing, sabbaticals, and contract workers. Follow this link for Yost's post and this link for her Fast Company interview on the topic with Dr. Peter Cappelli, the director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School of Business.

Yesterday my 15 year old – who gets breaking news updates on his cell from CNN! – asked if  I was in danger of losing my job. I’m curious have you or how do you talk with your kids about the current economic crisis and job security?