Wearing two hats: legislator and parent.

• Author: McAuliffe, Bill
• Position: NCSL: The First 25 Years

Being a legislator is hard on family life. Here are a few solutions to the problem of gap-filling.

It's easy to find Minnesota Representative Mary Ellen Otremba's office in the state office building. It's the one with a Sheryl Crow tune blaring through the open door.

Otremba, who succeeded her late husband, Representative Ken Otremba, in 1997, now shares her office with her 12-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. A sixth grader, Elizabeth is keeping up with her school lessons at the Capitol instead of staying at home, 100 miles away.

The arrangement means that Otremba, a teacher, has to mix some school instruction into her long days of meetings and House floor sessions.

"Being a room is one of my favorite things, and I want to preserve that," she says. "We actually spend more time together than a lot of preteens and their moms."

The arrangement is one example of how, for legislators, maintaining a family life during a five-month session in St. Paul can require unusual creativity and patience, particularly for those from faraway corners of the state.

"Obviously there's a sacrifice that has to be made," says House Speaker Steve Sviggum. "You're not quite as available for your family and children as you'd want to be."

Sviggum, who lives about an hour's drive south of the Capitol, said he missed several of his kids' baseball games and track meets this session when House floor sessions Speaker ran well into the evening. But he did manage to wave to his daughter from the speaker's podium, after she mentioned that she was watching him on television as they spoke on the telephone.

"There are things you miss in their lives, but overall I think most legislators, Democrat or Republican, would say they do the service for their families," Sviggum adds. "They want to be involved in government in a way that will provide opportunities for their children, like those they've had in the past."

Freshman legislator Representative Dan Dorman has his wife and two sons come to stay with him every Tuesday. After the 90-minute drive, they might catch an afternoon legislative hearing, swim in the pool at Dorman's apartment complex, sleep over and be back in school the next morning.

To make it happen, Dorman is firm: no meetings or politics on Tuesday nights. That's family time.

"Sometimes when you're not home and you call, you can tell the kids miss you. And you miss them," Dorman says. "On the other hand, the boys have had experiences not every child will get. They've...