Why I may give up reading the morning newspaper....

There is blessed little time in the morning to do much more than scrape peanut butter onto toast, forget where I put my coffee mug, shower and dress for work, navigate the toys cars, trains, diggers, dump trucks, and front end loaders littering the living and dining room floors while tottering about in one high heel shoe, evade the baby's sticky fingers as he comes barreling towards me yelling, flailing a peanut butter covered Goodnight Moon in my direction, find my car keys and then back out the driveway waving like a maniac at two sad little faces as I head off to work (and hot coffee). But the thing I love, absolutely adore, need beyond all reason, are the few precious moments after the peanut-butter-on-toast scraping and before the toy-obstacle-course, when I stand idle at the kitchen counter looking at the morning paper. The last two mornings, however, the morning paper has run stories that have shattered my reverie, destroyed my inner calm, and left me cross and muttering far too early into my day.

Here's why:
#1. Lisa MacLeod's evidence in trial of Ottawa mayor was dismissed because she was commuting to Toronto, ‘leaving her husband and child in Ottawa'...Lisa MacLeod is a young female politician who commutes to her job at Queen's Park (Toronto) from Ottawa (5 hour drive or 1 hour flight) and leaves her husband, Joe, and four-year-old daughter, Victoria, at home. Mr. Justice Douglas Cunningham of Ontario Superior Court said this is a big distraction for the 34-year-old woman and as a result he felt he could not accept her evidence as corroboration of the Crown's key witness in the recent high-profile, influence-peddling trial of Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien.

#2. Catherine Bailey, a successful City lawyer drowned herself after struggling to balance the demands of motherhood and her high-pressure job, a coroner's court heard today. Mother-of-three Catherine Bailey, 41, was found drowned in the Thames near Richmond Bridge. The South African-born partner in a City law firm had only recently returned to work after the birth of her third daughter.

#3. Female managers face more harassment, study says... Male co-workers target female supervisors as a way to equalize power in the office.

Sigh.