If you're a working mother how much time do you get to spend in quality time with your children?

As life becomes busier and financial pressures mount on the family it's become imperative that mothers go out to work. Sometimes the income brought into the family by the working mother is all that stands between survival and disaster.

But there is a cost that the family pays and that cost is the amount of time working mothers get to spend with their children each day. Until now there has never been an exact figure put on that amount of time but now we do have a time... measured in just minutes.

You can read more about it at Just 19 Minutes for the Kids at Information for Her

Depression is an illness that affects people from all walks of life and from all ethnic backgrounds. Depression is also an illness that is chronically under-reported and many sufferers struggle through their daily lives without treatment of any kind.

While there are a number of drugs available to the medical profession to use in the treatment of depression there is no one drug that is more effective than any other. And for some sufferers there is no drug that will treat their depression.

To further complicate the treatment of depression is the fact that, whatever drug is used to treat the illness, there is a long lead-time between first treatment and any noticeable improvement in the symptoms. In fact recent research in the United States suggests that doctors should allow at least 12 weeks for the medication to begin taking effect.

For the patient suffering from depression 12 weeks can seem like an eternity but the research has shown that those who wait that length of time are far more likely to have a positive outcome from the treatment than those who don't.

Scientists - and a whole lot of other people - have often wondered just what happens inside a person's head during orgasm. Now they think they know.

Scientists in the Netherlands have taken brain scans of men and women having sex and reaching orgasm and it has revealed some interesting differences. The key to female orgasm seems to be relaxation and a lack of anxiety.

On the other hand men need relaxation and a lack of anxiety to reach orgasm but not to the same extent as women. For men, the sensations coming from the genitals are more important than they are for women.

You can read more about this amazing study here

Electricity is part of our daily life that we take for granted. But it doesn't come out of thin air - electricity is the produced by power stations that can employ any one of a number of different methods.

Here in Australia much of our power comes from the burning of coal and the same is true in other countries too. Oil can also be used to produce electricity as can water, the sun and the wind. Unfortunately most countries depend on coal and oil and as those resources become more finite and more expensive we begin to look for alternatives.

Not every country has access to sufficient levels of sunlight to make solar energy a reasonable alternative and besides, generating the amounts of electricity that the western world needs to survive requires more generating power than the current level of solar technology can provide.

And it's the same with wind generated electricity. Wind farms are beginning to appear but they are a long way for reaching the generating level that we need.

So it should come as no surprise that more and more countries are looking to nuclear power to supply the electricity that we need every day. But is that a wise alternative?

There are many who say that it is a wise alternative and that it is perfectly safe but to those people I say just four words - Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

If you don't think that a major accident could happen at one of the West's nuclear power plants then remember Three Mile Island that happened in 1979 and seven years later Chernobyl spewed its deadly radiation cloud into the atmosphere.

Both were accidents caused by people who were either poorly trained or desperately trying to cut corners to save costs. The legacy of those accidents will haunt us for many years to come and the reminder of Chernobyl - a site still not stabilized 20 years after the event - will stay with the world forever.

If you think nuclear energy is safe to use then visit the site Chernobyl Revisited and take some time to read the text and look at the photos taken during a journey through the dead zone.

Who wants to live in a world where there are dead zones?

And if Chernobyl Revisited is too graphic for you then visit Chernobyl: Ghost of the Soviet Union - it's not quite so stark and threatening.

And once you have seen what simple accidents could do - accidents that came through cost cutting and poorly trained staff - you decide whether you want public companies (those very companies who cut costs to save money and improve their bottom line) to be allowed to build a nuclear reactor in your country.

A recent study conducted by the Center for Women's Business Research certainly seems to support that theory.

The study showed that, when it came actually selling the businesswomen were more concerned about the future of their business and their employees than men.

You can read more about the report in When it Comes to Selling a Business at Small Office, Home Office Information

I remember being in a hospital bed next to a woman who had just had a mastectomy and the support she received was incredible. Support people were by her bedside offering her the support that she needed at a time when the removal of a breast or breasts is a sudden change in lifestyle. A woman's life can be turned upside down, not just because she has cancer but because suddenly she doesn't look like the person she once was…

The bedside support, the after care and not having to rush through a process when the after surgery care should be there. Women shouldn't be shoved through the door like a machine, going in one side and out the other just to keep those hospital beds free.

The healing process should be allowed to happen without a woman having to go home with tubes still attached and while they are still groggy from the anesthetic. This is a very dangerous practice because anything could happen…

Why put the woman's health further at risk when she could have a minimum of 48 hours to start the recovery process…

A friend sent me this in an email and asked me to send it out to as many people as I could. But instead I have chosen to put it up on Women's Health Information because I believe that all women should have a say in how they want to be treated if they were in the same situation…

Mastectomy Bill in Congress

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important...please take the time and do it really quick!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women.

If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you are reading this it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go and vote on this issue and send the link on to others you know who will do the same.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home hours after surgery against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE!

Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/health/breast_mastectomy_pledge.html

This takes about 2 seconds. Please pass this link on to your friends and family.

Thanks

On my daughter's eighteenth birthday, she announced that she would be moving out after Christmas. This was a big shock, since she had just recently started a new job, that wasn't even quite up to minimum wage. I wondered how she thought she was going to handle all her expenses.

I tried to get her to wait and save up some money to cover all of her expenses, but she was stubborn and thought she could do just fine with her part-time job. I knew she had to find out the hard way and already I had begun to worry about my daughter, feeling that empty feeling of my only child being out on her own.

On December the thirtieth she moved out. The feeling I had was one of loneliness, dread and worry. I constantly worried whether she was eating right, if she was safe, was she at home at a decent hour and how her job was holding out.

I wanted to rush to her house and order her back home, but knew that she was now an adult on her own. So I decided to be patient and not let her see me worry about her. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but knew in my heart, that just watching over her was all I could do.

I really shouldn't have worried so much, since she began to drop by the house every so often, until it became an every day thing. She would come eat dinner, do laundry or borrow money; aggravating as that was since she had asserted her independence, I grabbed hold of every bit of time that I could spend with her.

I wanted so badly to tell her to return home and save up some money, but I'm just as stubborn as her and couldn't bring myself to utter the words.

It wasn't long before she lost her job and couldn't pay her bills. She soon found out that she was pregnant and didn't know what to do about the situation. She wanted the baby, but didn't know if she was going to be able to take care of it financially on her own.

Watching her worry about her financial situation and her baby ate at my heart. She didn't want help from her dad and I, so we just had to sit back and watch her struggle. It was heartbreaking and I didn't know how to cope with my little girl becoming depressed.

During this time, her home was broken into several times and she was afraid to stay at home by herself. We invited her to spend the nights at our home on the couch and she willingly took us up on the offer. Although we wanted her home permanently, we knew that asking was only going to make her more stubborn to remain out on her own. It had to be her choice.

Finally I decided it was time for mom to step in and do something about her situation. I contacted her and sat her down for a long talk. I asked her to come home until she could get on her feet and the baby was born. No rules, other than common courtesy of a phone call if she was going to be out late, keep her room clean and have respect for her parents. I knew that she would need help with her pregnancy and I could help her get the help she needed. I wanted her home safe and I was willing to do anything to make her come home.

I think she finally understood that not only was I her mom, but her friend. I needed her, just as much as she needed me and the support I could give her to get through her first round of entering into the adult world. She asked for help in moving, learning how to deal with finances and finally admitting to us, that she was not ready for the world outside of her safe haven she called home.

I finally realized that the next time she moves out on her own, I will have to let her spread her wings and fly, in order for her to learn life's lessons and become the competent adult I know that she will be.

Now she has been home for the past seven months, expecting her first baby and growing up a bit more before heading out into the adult world.

It will be hard to let her and the grandbaby go when the time comes, but I know that in order for her to be able to learn how to stand on her own two feet, I'm going to have to learn to loosen the apron strings a bit. I know in my heart, that if she needs me at any time, she knows that mom will be there.

Brenda

Picture this scenario - you've submitted an outstanding written application, you've performed brilliantly in the interview, you feel you have an excellent chance of being offered the position, but you are now waiting for the phone call to tell you it's all yours. It can be a very difficult position to be in. There are a few very important things to remember during this time.

Do not to rush into resigning. Ok so you performed brilliantly in the interview. You know it is just a matter of time before you get the phone call to tell you that the job is all yours but don't hand that letter of resignation in just yet. There is no point resigning until the new job offer is set in stone.

By resigning prior to getting the phone call you might inadvertently put yourself in a position where you are suddenly unemployed. Go ahead and write the letter just don't submit it to your boss.

It is also very important to continue working to your full potential in your current job. The waiting period is the time when you feel like doing the least amount of work. You are convinced that it is only a matter of weeks before you are out of here but you still need to get your work done.

There is no point letting it pile up and pile up for the next person to do. Who is going to have to do it if you don't get the job? Not only that, but if there is a whole lot of work outstanding your current boss may not release you until it is done.

Don't forget that at this stage your current boss is not going to officially know about the new position. He is going to be expecting the same level of work from you now as you were putting in two weeks ago.

Don't burn your bridges. There will always be someone you work with who you don't like. Now is not a good time to tell them how painful it has been to work with them. In fact no time is a good time to make negative comments about your work colleagues.

It would leave you in a terrible predicament if you had gone round the office telling everyone exactly how you felt about him or her and you didn't end up getting the job. Or one day further down the track one of those people ended up as your boss.

So what do you do? Well you keep going to work on time. You keep doing all the work that is expected of you. You don't clean out your desk, and you definitely don't tell people how much you disliked working with them. You need to function at work as if you weren't waiting to hear about another job.

At times this can be very difficult but this is the time that can make or break you in your current job. Regardless of how much you want to get out, if you are unsuccessful with the new position you will need to keep working where you currently are until you can find another job.

~ 9 - 5 ~