Picture this scene: You re-arrange your work schedule to attend a party in your child's classroom. You happily hug your child hello as you arrive. Then you notice a table filled with adorable ceramic Dalmations, beribboned and hand-painted for each child in the class by one child's stay-at-home mother.

Now try another: Your alumni magazine features the stunning professional accomplishments of a former classmate. Unlike you, she has not let motherhood slow down her professional advancement one bit. Her children, smiling beside her in the magazine photo, seem to be turning out fine.

If you're not prepared, either scene could drag you into