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The Workin’ Mom: Take your kids to work ... all day, every day? That would be tough

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By Kay Luna | Friday, April 4, 2008 4:18 PM CDT | () comments

AS I type this right now, John Mayer is crooning his “Daughters” song to me, thanks to my little iPod headphones.

But I’m only able to listen to music through my headphones while at work.

At home, I’m Mommy again and always need to be able to hear and watch out for Babycakes, as I call my daughter. You never know when she’s going to try a new adventure such as teetering on the edge of the steps (yikes!) or chewing on dog toys (yuck!).

The days of headphones would be completely over for me if I brought her to the office every day. Yep, some people do this (not at the Quad-City Times, though).

We’ve been “talking” about this on my blog, called “The Workin’ Mom,” which you can find at qctimes.com/blogs. What do you think about the idea?

That’s a happier subject to think about than some of the posts I’ve made lately.

First, there was talk about a man convicted of putting his infant in the microwave and cooking her for 10-20 seconds. Horrifying. One reader commented that the guy’s punishment should be frying him in the microwave … for 10-20 minutes, not seconds.

Then we got (sadly) sidetracked when a 2-year-old Chicago-area girl was killed by a TV, which fell off a cart and toppled over on her. After reading the story, Amy commented, “You know it made me cry.”

I also found myself crying a lot lately as I worked on a story about the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep organization, which has a Web site at nowilaymedowntosleep.org. It links professional photographers with families who want portraits of their sweet babies who are either stillborn or die soon after birth.

One of the photographers is Lisa Francescon of Moline. She led me to a couple who lost their baby son, Samuel, two years ago — but they have since gone on to have another child, a 9-month-old girl. They reminded me that sometimes we have to go through tears before we get to the smiles in life.

I blogged about the experience, and Cardsgirl chimed in, saying, “Smiles and laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.”

Hope to talk to you soon.

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

ON THE WEB

Quad-City Times features reporter Kay Luna’s regular Weekend page column is based on her blog, “The Workin’ Mom,” at qctimes.com/blogs