I sit on the floor stacking Duplo blocks with my 18-month-old, my head cocked toward the closed door across the room. The sun has dimmed, rush hour has passed, and my two older kids, ages 8 and 6, are busy practicing the alphabet and memorizing math facts. I try to turn a deaf ear to the answering machine as it drones a familiar voice, a partner on a current project who lives in California and has an annoying tendency to forget that his 4:00 is my 7:00. Ten minutes later, unable to get my brain back to those building blocks, I pop in a beloved Barney video for my toddler and duck behind the door to play the message. Then I guiltily hammer off an e-mail on my computer while my daughter hollers for math help from the next room.

Ahhh, technology. It was supposed to simplify lives, especially for working moms  -- providing the flexibility to go to the pediatrician, log on to office e-mail from home when the school district takes a snow day, or attend the latest preschool performance. Yet such gadgets as cell phones, pagers, and wireless e-mail devices often have the opposite effect on an already harried existence. For some moms, being on call 24/7 may be subtly sapping the family time these helpful communication devices were supposed to create. Just four years ago, a Yankelovich survey found that 51 percent of moms felt technology had given them more leisure time. Today, that figure has dropped to 35 percent.

"A few years ago, I wouldn't have thought it possible to simultaneously talk on the phone with a client, process orders on my laptop, cook dinner, and test my son's spelling  -- but it is!" says Fern Reiss of Boston, a mom of three, ages 10, 6, and 2, and founder of PublishingGame.com, which produces books and workshops for authors. "Juggling's a way of life for me, though if I blink for too long, all the balls may come crashing down! When I'm off to the playground with my kids and an important client calls on my cell phone, it just kills me to see their faces fall."

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