Suzy Welch and Tina Brown Talk Working Moms and Sarah Palin

Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, and Suzy Welch, former editor of the Harvard Business Review, both know a bit about being busy. Brown recently interviewed Welch about her new book 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea and they had a brief discussion of work-life balance and Sarah Palin.

Here's the excerpt:

[Brown:] I actually have always found that mixing the kids with the business does not work in any shape or form. And the whole idea—when I read about politicians that bring their kids to work I think, "Who are they kidding?" That is what obsessed me about Sarah Palin. It couldn't possibly have been happening the way she described it.

[Welch:] One thing that kills me when people bring their kids to work is the assumption that other people in the office enjoy it. They want your kids in the office? Who is actually enjoying that? That is a decision you have to make. You have to separate lives. Are you going to blend them at someone else's expense?

Palin famously returned to the office three days after giving birth, and said she nursed her youngest son--born after she became Governor of Alaska--while working.

I'm curious to know what readers think about the two issues Welch and Brown raise. Did Palin's mother-at-work description seem unrealistic to you? Does that sort of family-work blending necessarily interfere with colleagues' work lives? Have you seen it done successfully?