What Happens When Mom Goes To Congress?

The Washington Post has a great story today about the record (albeit still pretty miniscule) number of women in Congress with children under the age of 13.

The grand total, by the way, is 10. This is in a year when the total number of women in Congress is itself at a record high, with 16 women in the Senate and the 74 in the House.

Ironically, the story points out, the new five-day per week schedule adopted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (herself a mother and grandmother) is particularly grueling on parents:

“We have a lot of long weeks in Washington and short days, not using the time well at all,” said Rep. Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico, according the Post.

Sophomore Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida gets marquee billing in the story. According to the Post, Wasserman Schultz, a mother of eight-year-old twins and a three-year-old daughter, keeps her kids close by hosting each separately for one week in Washington while Congress is in session.

And when she’s stuck at a candidates’ forum and can’t find a pen, she’s not above pulling out a peach crayon from her purse.