if it makes a difference if the interviewer is a man or a woman. I'd reckon a woman interviewer - particularly a working mom - would have a bit more sympathy.

As the MSN article pointed out, today’s stay-at-home father will hardly find anyone to relate to once he does return to the workplace since there are way more SAHMs than SAHFs.

Why? They can't talk to the former SAHMs? If anything, you'd think that the experience would broaden the number of people they could relate to - if we talk about common experiences, then they'd have ways to relate to both the men and the women in the company.

I read a stat in the book Mothers on the Fast Track that mothers in the workforce are seen as lazy or too distracted by their children to work. Meanwhile fathers are seen as mature and responsible.

My guess would be that this has to do with how much time is taken off. Do you remember if the stat took that into account? If the dads aren't taking time off when their kids need to go to the doctor etc., but the moms are, I'd expect that would explain the difference more than adequately.

no one that I am required to justify my schedule, my work gaps, my experience. Although I have to say, is it a problem with part-time work in general for professionals? We've heard here that women are finding it quite difficult to find part-time work, too.

I have to say that one of the things I love about Australia is the proliferation of part-time work for professionals; I'd say about half of the parents (mostly women but some men) that I know from various kid-related activities are white-collar professionals and have part-time or flexi-time jobs in the corporate world. In fact, I'll be part of their legion soon too - I've got a part-time gig coming up that's well remunerated, good responsiblity and will allow me to work from home. My boss, a man, works from home two days per week, too, to give his partner equal opportunity for her career and to split the caring responsibilities... But it could be that I just habituate in very liberal waters.

My husband, uber SAHF that he was, was able to ease back into the full time work world fairly easily.  He would probably have preferred a full time teaching position at the community college, but since he doesn't have a PhD, that would have been hard.  But being able to work in the administration of the college he's been adjuncting at while staying at home with the boys was a great opportunity.

I'm sure it can be hard if you are in a different kind of environment, more corporate in other words.

when DD was born 2 years ago, and scheduled 5 weeks off for DS (it has since become 8 weeks due to the surgery and such).  His company has been great about the time off, and his co-workers have offered to babysit for us.

However, his boss does hold his paternity leave against him...using it to justify passing him over for promotions and refusing to pay for advancement training.

would join forces with women who have long dealt with these issues in pressing for more family-friendly policies and laws for both men and women. How about PAID family leave that is gender neutral and not dependent on employer policies?

Would Clinton support this?

hope you don't mind me jumping right in.

"How does the workplace view a man that takes time off of his career to raise children? They tend to look at him as not having the kind of drive or seriousness of purpose that they would want in leadership positions," he says about what he sees as a pervasive stereotype.

So, how is that tougher (or even different)?