The Best of the Rest of the Web: Chore Wars, Romantic Moments, and Messy Monsters

From our September print issues: check out our latest roundup of thoughtful, observant, and laugh-out-loud quotes from a selection of our favorite mom (and dad!) bloggers and writers.

Chore Wars: "...the widespread belief that working mothers have it [worse than fathers]...is simply not the open-and-shut case it once was.... And it's time that women -- myself included -- admit it and move on."

-Ruth Davis Konigsberg, in a Time magazine cover story in August called "Chore Wars"; the fact that it merited the cover is noteworthy itself...and the data is sometimes surprising, the familiarity of feeling like an over-burdened mom and resenting dad, well, stomach-churning.

Love in the Time of Kids
"You no longer wander around Pottery Barn, pointing out your favorite things to place in an imaginary house that you may some day build together. You have a house. Together. It's filled with sh*t from Pottery Barn. And it's a mess. You don't have long, enchanting days together. Instead, you have small romantic moments...

And just the other day, during a small respite, when the twins were napping, Dylan was taping, gluing, and cutting some kind of card that would strongly resemble a ransom note and Summer was finding new ways to distribute glitter throughout the playroom, Rick and I found ourselves alone in the kitchen.

A moment for just the two of us. He wrapped his arms around me and said, "You smell so nice." What a sweet thing for my husband to say. Maybe it was my freshly washed skin. Or a hint of my perfume. Or the grapefruit essence of my shampoo. Except I hadn't yet showered that morning. 'Order perfume' has sat idly on my to-do list for months. And I hadn't washed my hair in a couple, well, several, well, let's just say, quite a few days.

'Honey, smell the counter tops,' I said. 'Is that what you are smelling?' It was. Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day counter top spray in geranium scent. It's apparently the new scent of romance and love."

-Kelcey Kintner, New York mom of four (including twins) from her blog post "Romantic Moments in the Modern Day Marriage," at The Mama Bird Diaries, www.mamabirddiaries.com

Bless Your Mess
"I feel like every step I take picking something up, a little 'messer' is trailing behind me dropping something back onto the floor. I used to have reign of the house but now it is under new command.... If you have a messy monster wonderful toddler like mine you can picture this because it probably just happened to you (or could be happening right now while you sit here reading this...where's your toddler again?)"