[SydneyK]

I can definitely see the benefit of having someone in your chapter who is a mom, but there are also some definite drawbacks.

When I was a collegiate, we bid on a woman who was a mom. She really fit in well with the women in the chapter and it was very obvious to us that she had incredible leadership potential. We were disappointed when, during her second year as an active, her regular babysitter moved. Unfortunately, this woman saw our chapter as the babysitting pool, and she didn't hesitate to ask us to watch her kids. It was ok at first, but it got real old, real fast. She eventually stiffed a few of us who babysat, and because of that, we ended up never agreeing to watch her kids again. She felt abandoned and angry; we felt taken advantage of and angry. It caused our chapter way more grief than any chapter should have to deal with. And quite frankly, we were relieved when she left (I don't know the specifics - don't know if she graduated, went alum, terminated, etc...).

Now, I know that not all moms would act this way. But we never thought she would - she seemed like the perfect sister. And, in fact, she was for a couple years. But the fact remained that she treated her sorority as a babysitting service, and that's not the purpose of sisterhood.

TSteven brings up a great question - is the difference due to the fact that men are more susceptible to checking their personal lives at the fraternity house door? I've said before, Mommy Brain is hard to shut off. For some reason (and I'm not dissing dads - I'm quite jealous, actually), men seem to have an easier time shutting off Daddy Brain (or, at least, appearing to).