As a Newsweek reporter stationed in Paris, Judith Warner had ample opportunity to observe the stereotypical gender roles of French culture, and her pieces reflected an American feminist's sense of superiority. When she returned to the United States, Warner, now a mother of two, received a rude awakening. She found that the working moms she had idealized from abroad were in reality tired, harassed, and at loose ends, most of them convinced that they had failed as both mothers and wives. These stressed-out overachievers longed for the quiet times that French mothers, thanks to state-subsidized nannies, took for granted. Her book is a wake-up call for every woman who once wished that she had it all and now laments that she does.