Once again, science has gone through an awful lot of trouble to prove something totally obvious that we already knew. New moms on maternity leave feel totally inadequate about returning to work. If we're at home, we go for days without talking to another adult. When we return to work, we have less confidence. I mean, the whole study just paints the saddest, most demoralizing portrait of working motherhood you could ever ask for. Gee, thanks!

Okay, so we really didn't need these researchers to tell us it's insanely difficult to get our career mojo going again after we have a baby. Here's what we DO need: Some fresh ideas for HOW to get our career mojo going again.

The other day a Stir reader left me the following comment: "Linda, you are not truly a SAHM." Her point, I guess, was that because I have outside employment, I don't know what it's like to be an at-home mom. Even though I am, in fact, a mom who doesn't have an office job. I also don't have a nanny, I have one child who's not yet in school, and I take care of all the household tasks, from cleaning to laundry to meals to grocery shopping to doctors' appointments.

I'm not sure why the fact that I also work my ass off to earn a paycheck keeps me from being a "true SAHM," but I've felt this disconnect before. I work, but I'm not the sort of working mom I was when I went to an office full-time. I'm at home, but I don't quite feel like that description fits me perfectly either -- and clearly, there are others who don't believe I deserve the title.

As a parent, do you ever feel guilty for the choices you make? (Cue chirpy Sally Struthers voice: Sure, we all do!) But do you ever feel guilty about NOT feeling guilty as a parent? It sounds silly -- like a waste of time and energy, and also like some sort of useless glitch in the motherhood Matrix -- but reverse Mom guilt is an actual thing now.

Reverse Mom guilt, as described by this article on Today.com, is triggered by the fact that good mothers are supposed to feel guilty about almost everything in our pursuit of parental perfection ... but there are times when we relish our supposedly guilt-inducing decisions without feeling bad about it.

Instead, we feel a little bad about, you know, NOT feeling bad.

We were all envious when we heard about Marissa Mayer's private nursery. Wouldn't we all love the same thing. Well ... maybe you can. A blogger recently suggested a solution for working parents. And it's not what you think (in-office daycare). Nope, it's a "babies-at-work program." You know, a program where your boss just lets you bring your baby with you to the office, and you still work and everything, but you also take care of your baby yourself at the same time.

Yes, this is a real thing. There's even a consulting company called Babies in Business Solutions that helps everyone sort it out. And you know what? This sounds utterly insane.

Someone just turned 20 today. Guess who???? It's the Family and Medical Leave Act, signed into law 20 years ago. This law protects workers who want to take a parent leave after the birth or arrival of a new child, and it protects workers who need to go on medical leave either for themselves or for a family member. Before that, a business could fire or replace you if it wanted to if you went on leave for either of those reasons.

The FMLA only protects full-time employees at companies with over 50 employees. So not everyone benefits from the law. But for those of us who have benefited from the law, it's been a huge relief. I can't imagine how different my life as a mom would be without it.

I worked part-time as a college professor when my first child, now 8, was a baby. But then due to my husband's job as a military officer, I decided to quit and stay home with her and our subsequent kids.

And yes, even though it ended up leading to a pretty amazing career as a blogger, writer, and entrepreneur, I was still always with them all the time, cramming in work at naptime and bedtime when I could.

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, and there are lots of things I'd probably do over, but the big one, which isn't generally the popular opinion, is that I'd work more than I did.

I learned about a friend's sister who gets paid to be a stay-at-home mom and felt grossly underpaid. I love being a SAHM, but come Friday, there are no checks for me to cash, no monetary number put on the work that I do all week with the kids, no salary. This mom in particular gets paid by her husband every week for essentially being the CEO of the household. I don't know the amount she is paid, but I believe it's substantial, as she has her own bank account and expenses that are designated for her to take care of out of that pay.

I was fascinated by this. When I got married and had kids, my husband and I merged our bank accounts. I was a working mom for a couple of years until I began staying home with the kids and freelancing last year. It works for us, but I will admit there are times that I wish I had my own money, something that really reflects what I do each day, and my own account.

I've reproduced just twice. I'm ok with that.Is limiting the number of children one has a symptom of “cultural decadence”? This week in The New York Times, Ross Douthat argues that it is the niceties of modern life that are contributing significantly to the declining birthrate in America.

Fertility plunged after the recession hit in 2008, and it has yet to recover. The Pew Research Center found that U.S. birthrates hit their lowest number ever in 2011, with 63 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. In 1990, it was 71 per 1,000.

It makes sense. A lot of people (myself included) worry that they won’t have the means to provide for another child. Kids are expensive, yo, what with their lessons and activities, clothes, health upkeep, and the endless supply of GoGurt they seem to consume -- and that’s before we even get into the emotional toll they take on our lives.