As parents and teachers, we may be wondering if the introduction of technology into the lives of children is changing the way children play, learn, think and express their own creativity.

Until we find that new path, women (and men) who can afford to step off the existing path, will continue to do so. And we will have the cover story equivalent of "Groundhog Day" -- as each new cohort finds itself conflicted for the first time.

All the talk about "leaning in" at work, inevitably leads to the subject of leaning in at home. You can't be equal at the office unless you are equal outside of it.  

Some of the most revealing insights about how things have changed, however, came during talks that were about something else entirely.

"I...have chosen to leave private practice, and the practice of law (at least for now).I truly admire all of you that have been able to juggle your career and family and do not envy what a challenge it is trying to do each well."

Young women without children are watching to see how we do it. They feel both sympathy and resentment. We are their role models and worst nightmares. They are stressed by seeing our stress.

The President is on Reddit! And he is talking about parenting!

Every few months, researchers unveil more proof that working moms are happier than stay-at-home moms. And every few months the same old debate erupts online about whether that can possibly be true. Let's make this time different.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, it seems, has a British counterpart, Louise Mensch, who was a Conservative member of Parliament until last week when she submitted her letter of resignation to Prime Minister David Cameron.

"At the top you don't have to be there at 10 AM sharp because you know you have a staff who will be there at 10 AM sharp. It's getting to the top that's hard on mothers, not being there."

Maybe all the sniping and hair-splitting, the need to name every parental choice and write a book about it -- perhaps that was the storm before our social leap? Maybe the convergence of views means we might move on from parallel play to playing nicely with others?

Silence is toxic. Our ideas of normal come from what we see and hear around us. Our permission to act, and even think, in a certain way, is obtained by noticing the boundaries being heeded by everyone else. So I make it a point to talk about my children at work.

Several high-profile articles in the past few days have created one of those crystallizing moments -- a spotlight on the on the fact that work just doesn't work for so many of us. The more of these moments we have, the greater the chance that things actually change, so let's seize this one and keep talking.

Women have done all the contorting that they can possibly do to cram their dual desires for work and children into the workplace as it exists. Now it is time for the workplace to cram, contort and change instead.

Philosopher Elisabeth Badinter assumes that her description of a child centered world is the result of new social pressures on women. What's really new are the novel ways that modern mothers of young children are finding to cope.