The hardest part of my job is that everyone lies about parenting

The hardest part of my job is that everyone lies about parenting When I was growing up, there was lots of chatter in the media about how models gave girls bad role models. Today thats old news. What we should talk about now is how the media portrays moms. Take a look at the spread in People magazine of Jennifer Lopez and her one-month-old twins. The photos are so elegant that at first I thought it was a parody. But in fact, it is mommy porn: the visual fantasy of what being a working mom could be. And it really could be that, if it werent that someone like Jennifer Lopez must have a household full of helpers in order to keep her career on track while she has kids: a cook, a trainer, two or three nannies, a cleaner, an assistant, a stylist. And others Im sure I cant even imagine. Heres another example of mommy porn: Angelina Jolie, and her fifty kids. She has a rule that the nannies (plural, yes, each kid has their own) cannot be photographed holding the kids, because its bad for Angelinas image as a mom. But this is the problem: It looks like these very successful women have it all, even though they dont. Heres what happens: Some reporter interviews someone about their big job. And then the person ends up talking about the mythic work-life-balance topic. And they say something like, Throughout my career I did [insert something that is supposed to be wonderful for children] for my kids. And now, of course, we must assume that the kids are doing fine. But why do we believe that? Why do we even ask? We have no hope of learning the truth. After all, there are very few people in the world who are in a position to say that their career is, as they speak, harming their kids. So journalists writing about moms being moms are not reporting the truth. It is propaganda. It is parents saying that they lived their lives in a way that was good for their kids. But really, who knows? The reporter has little ability to check. So all were left with is the parents giving their subjective and hugely biased opinion that their kids are turning out fine. Im not saying that every kid is messed up from their parents careers. Im saying that Im sick of learning about how famous families want us to think they are doing by looking at what is really only mommy porn, what is really just parenting propaganda. So look, in the interest of truth-telling, Im telling you this: people are not being honest about what its like to be with kids. People are scared to admit that they would rather be at work than with their kids, because work is easier than parenting. (Notable exception: Sally Krawcheck.) If I have to read about how much someone loves their kids one more time, Im gonna puke. Because we all know that parents love their kids. Its not interesting. Its not helpful. Its not even very relevant. For anyone. Whats interesting is the part where parents love their kids but dont love being with them on a daily basis. Its very scary to write. But Im telling you, if the feeling werent ubiquitous then there would be no one to be in middle management working 9-5 because theyd all be home with their kids, doing freelance work after bedtime. People are choosing to go to work rather than stay with their kids all day. But no one talks about making this choice because they are scared their kids will read it. Im not sure what the right answer is. I just know that somehow there has to be a more honest discussion of parenting in this world. So with all the mommy porn, the media does a lot to make us think that work life balance is possible, in the same way anorexic bodies without treatment for anorexia is possible. So theres real damage from mommy porn. Everyone begins thinking that every woman should be parenting gracefully while working full time. This gives people the temerity to ask me, nearly every day: Who takes care of your kids? Thats right. The genesis of this rant is that I was meeting with an investor a guy in his early 40s and we were talking about my travel schedule and he asked, Who takes care of your kids? I told this to one of my board members and he said, What??? Why did you answer that question? I said I answer it because I get the question every single day. Literally. And I dont think twice about it anymore. But in fact, its a totally offensive question. Heres how Im so sure: I tried it out on Mr. Sales Guy. And even though Mr. Sales Guy and I work the same number of hours, he said something to the effect of, Im not really sure what goes on with the kids all day, you have to ask my wife. He answered the question as if we were doing girl talk. As if I had asked him, What brand of tampon does your wife use? So I want to tell you something: Women earn more than men in most major cities today. And in corporate America, up and down the ladder, women and men are on equal footing in the workplace in terms of who gets paid what, as long as neither party has kids. But the level of expectations people have for parenting is absolutely insane. The mommy porn feeds this problem. Everyone is drawn to the ideal of Angelina Jolie as the perfect combination of careerist and mother like the Pied Pipers tune, and these attitudes are more exhausting to me than any amount of actual parenting ever is.