I found it heartening to hear Arianna Huffington, Mika Brzezinski and Katie Couric relay stories of how, amid hectic careers, they realized the necessity of taking better care of themselves and their family -- of relieving stress and gaining inner peace.

Children and husbands are often viewed as a burden to startup life -- distractions that prevent entrepreneurs from focusing all their time and effort on the business. Rarely do we give credence to the benefits of having a strong, supportive partner.

So much of the rhetoric these days is about us taking responsibility for how we react and feel. But what if our negative reactions are normal and warranted?

We've managed to reduce a complex amalgam of issues to a yes or no question. As you progress on your work/life journey, ask yourself these six questions to gain clarity.

What we ought to be talking about is why the workplace remains so incompatible with motherhood in the first place -- and why we assume that fixing that is women's work.

This idea of having it all, the mantra so many of us assumed was our birthright, has led to a world of grief.

Mad Men doesn't pretend that these "career girls" are empowered: These gals are as hemmed in by the intractability of the system as they are by their rigid underwear.