Parenting effectively requires a lot of skills — the ability to negotiate and to have patience, among them. As a mother,  that means moderating a battle between two toddlers who want the same toy, serving dessert IF they first eat their broccoli or reading  a favorite story for what seems like the millionth time in a single night. As a manager, it involves resolving squabbles, dealing with personal issues, or explaining, yet again, the way you want something done.

The question of whether moms make better business managers came to mind after I spotted  some online coverage of the recent Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference and Expo in New York City. Since I’m also a mompreneur — I started Child’s Play Communications when I was pregnant with my son –  it got me thinking about whether our experience as mothers made a difference in the business world.

I know that one thing motherhood taught me was lessons about picking your battles. A perfectionist at heart (big time), I learned that in  business things can’t be perfect all the time, much as you would like them to be, and sometimes you just have to count to 10, clean up the mess and move on — even if you feel like giving the employee who created the problem a permanent time out. Motherhood also taught me to multi-task like a maniac, a skill I know I did not possess prior to pregnancy. There are times, in fact,  when I look back at running a business while my child was young, while also being the good wife, managing all the household responsibilities,  cooking dinner every day, taking care of a mom who was sick, running various school committees,  keeping clients happy, supervising staff – and wondering, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!

So tell me, moms, do you think the experience of  motherhood has made a difference in your abilities at work? And marketers, do you see this among the moms you hire?

Or is it?

According to a Pew Research Center study conducted last spring, 19% percent of Americans – nearly a fifth of the entire population — think women should return to their traditional roles. For those of us who were around before the term “women’s lib” was even coined, that number is something of a surprise.  But even more intriguing – although possibly less surprising – is the response of mothers surveyed: “A substantial majority of all working mothers (62 percent) say they would prefer to work part time. Only 37 percent would prefer to work full time. In contrast, an overwhelming majority (79 percent) of working fathers say they prefer full-time work. Only 1 in 5 would prefer part-time employment,” stated an article in U.S. News & World Report.  The same article pointed out that the great majority (86 percent) of working moms say they sometimes or often feel stressed (been there, felt that). But so do almost as many mothers who stay at home (82 percent).

As a mom who started her own business just before her son was born, I had the best of both worlds – a full time job that I loved, the opportunity to take my son to the office with me and, as he got older, the flexibility to take off time whenever I needed to – although as any working mom knows, time taken “off” during the day usually leads to that number of hours or more catching up in the middle of the night.

Moms, what is your ideal – full-time or part-time employment? And how do you feel about the fact that so few dads would prefer a part-time opportunity? Companies, what options do you offer moms in the workplace?

The 5.6 million women who said they stayed home to care for children and family while their husband worked full time were younger and more likely to be Hispanic and foreign-born than other mothers that year.

Twenty eight percent of  SAHMs had infants, compared with just 21% of other moms, while 57% had a child under 5, vs. 43% of other mothers.

The report also indicated that SAHMs typically had less education: 19% had less than a high school degree, vs. 8% of other mothers, and 32% had at least a bachelor’s degree, compared witih 38% of other mothers.

Of course, the economy being what it is, it’s highly likely that many of these mothers have since returned to the work force — voluntarily or not.

Do you think an abundant exposure to the princess philosophy affects girls’ views on earning money and supporting a family? What steps should be taken to assure that they are prepared if the full economic burden falls on their shoulders?

For more, see The Princess Problem.

The top 10 cities for working moms are, in order: New York Metro, Austin, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, Portland, Cincinnati, San Jose, Pittsburgh, Seattle-Tacoma and Denver.

Where would your city rank on the list? And what would be your most important criteria for selecting a new place to live?

For the full story and all 50 of the cities, visit here.

Talk about mom-friendly companies…

The Human Resources department at a Deerfield, Michigan accounting firm partners pregnant women with other employees who have recently had babies, so that moms-to-be can ask questions and get support. The “buddies” also assist the new moms in making the transition back to work.

The buddies are encouraged to meet on company time, go out for lunches together and participate in relationship-building exercises, says Kristen Cifolelli, HR Manager for the company, Plante & Moran.

Moms, does your employer have mom-friendly policies?

Marketers, are you offering new parents incentives to stay—or cutting benefits to keep costs down during the Recession?

According to a recent survey sponsored by CareerBuilders, 30% of working moms whose companies have had layoffs in the past year are working longer hours and 14% now have two jobs. Forty-three percent of working mothers who work outside the home, now work more than 40 hours each week. Because of the increased hours, nearly 20% are spending less time with their kids every day. The result: Working mothers are stressed out and exhausted, and finding that balancing career and family has become more difficult than ever. It’s no surprise that 34% of working moms today are feeling burned out.

If you’re a working mom, have your hours changed significantly? Why? And what impact is that having on your life?

The online study was conducted by Harris Interactive, and surveyed 496 full-time working women between February 20 and March 11, 2009. For more, visit CareerBuilder.

Yesterday’s New York Times noted that there are no laws against dismissing a pregnant woman or a woman on maternity leave – as long as she is not being let go because she is pregnant or a new mom. Yet some laid-off women maintain that while “the economy” was cited as the reason for their departure, their pregnancy may have contributed.

For more, see “When the Stork Carries a Pink Slip.”

Employers, have you had to let a pregnant staff member go? What issues did you face?

Moms – have any of you lost your job while pregnant? Did you feel there was any discrimination involved? Has your pregnancy made it more difficult to find another position?

A recent New York Times article talked about a Manhattan mom who became pregnant while she was launching her own company, decided she would bring her baby to the office with her daily, and set up an on-premises playroom – exactly what I did 20 years ago when pregnant with my son, Evan. Reaction varied then as I’m sure it does now. To this day I remember one client – male – who came for a meeting and looked aghast upon learning that baby and babysitter alike were part of it (it was a small office). There were the many other clients who never knew their conference calls were being conducted while my little one was nursing. Evan came to work with me every day until he began to walk – and I realized he’d be better off running around the playground with other kids than shuttling from one desk to the next.

The Times article noted how more companies are allowing employees to bring their babies to work, and discussed the pros and cons. It pointed out that a child’s needs – and noise – could be highly distracting to his/her parent and other employees alike, and suggested that with baby underfoot it was impossible for parents to be completely devoted to either the child or the job. Experts suggest that companies that do allow parents to regularly bring children to the office establish specific written policies – e.g., the age or stage (crawling, walking) at which children are permitted in the space, and designated areas for changing diapers.

What do you think about a bring-your-baby-to-work policy – especially if you’re in the business of making baby/children’s products? What guidelines would be fair to both employer and employees – the parent and her co-workers alike?

In this economy, the good news for working moms is that more women are holding onto jobs than men are. The bad news: The fields that women dominate generally offer more stability – but less pay. Seventy-five percent of workers in health care and education are women, according to economic consulting firm IHS Global Insight. Employers added more than half a million jobs to those two fields combined in 2008. Men, meanwhile, represent 93% of workers in construction and 72% in manufacturing – industries in which 1.4 million jobs were lost during the same period. Since the recession began in December 2007, the jobless rate for men jumped from 4.4% to 7.2%, while the rate for women rose from 4.3% to 5.9%. Women are also more likely to work part time than men (25% vs. 12%), which could make women less vulnerable to cuts. The reason: Because part-timers do not receive benefits, they are likely to cost employers less.