There's no such thing as perfect timing when it comes to the nonstop juggling act that is a high-level career and motherhood, an act women in increasing numbers face as they move up the ranks in corporate America and beyond.

Whether they come to it early or late in their careers, out of the blue or through a carefully choreographed life plan, executive women balancing dual responsibilities quickly learn that doing both well requires skills that weren't on the syllabus when they were at school.

"Once you have kids, you try to change your life on a dime, and you can't," said Ellen Ingersoll, 42, chief financial officer of Viad Corp. in Phoenix and mother of two girls, 9 and 12.

The work/life challenge has been around for decades, of course. Companies large and small have responded with a lineup of workplace services and benefits, from dry cleaning to flexible time, to help workers, and they're more mindful than ever of employees' balancing acts.

Despite the support, Ellen Galinsky, a mergers-and-acquisitions attorney in Phoenix, sees more conflicts today.

"Work has gotten so much more hectic," said Galinsky, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute in New York. "The boundaries between when you're working and you're not are more blurred. People are multitasking. People are being interrupted all of the time. Those changes are, in a sense, trumping the good things."

In many ways, executive and professional women have an edge because they tend to make more money and can afford household help. They often have more options for childcare and flexibility and help at work.

Still, these women also tend to have pressure-cooker jobs, jobs where 9 to 5 is a dream day, meetings are back-to-back and employees, clients and deadlines always beckon. They are unlikely to be separated from their briefcases, BlackBerrys and Treos that make work and e-mail portable.

"It's constantly a struggle to keep on top of everything," said Susan Wissink, 37, a mergers-and-acquisitions attorney in Phoenix and the mother of triplets, age 3.

Wissink, who made partner at Fennemore Craig six days before her triplets were born in 2003, is not complaining. She worked hard to become a partner by 33 and loves her job. "I've always done best in my life when I have a million things up in the air," Wissink said.

NO SECRET FORMULA

There's no secret formula to balancing a big career and a family, no fill-in-the-blank blueprint for success.

Some squeeze it all in by racing to the office before the kids are up, hunkering down all day and leaving before dark to clear the evening for family.

Others zigzag between work and family duties during the day, when needed, and catch up on work at night from home.

The perfect solution when the kids are babies likely will be useless when they're teens.

Wissink picks the brains of other lawyer moms and family and friends for advice. Ingersoll's husband, Steve, an independent liquor broker, gets their daughters, Alicia and Carli, off to school in the morning so Ingersoll can head to work around 6:30 a.m. She usually tries to leave the office by 4:30 p.m.

She and her husband alternate picking up the kids around 5 p.m. at their after-school program, then shuttling them to softball and other sports.

"I'm a real firm believer that everybody needs someone (in the family) who's flexible, because I'm not," Ingersoll said.

She was stunned when she joined Viad in 2002 as controller, and CEO Bob Bohannon told her to make sure she made time for her kids' events at school and other family activities.

Too often, she recalls him saying, people lose sight that the work will get done. Bohannon has two children about the same ages as hers.

"(He) is probably the first person I've worked for who had that attitude. I said, 'Whoa, that's pretty refreshing,' " she said.

Viad's office hours even are tailored around real families' schedules, set at 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Ingersoll said she usually can't leave that early, but it's nice to know it's an option.

"I don't think that my life has always been that balanced, but I'm in a really good place right now because of where I work," she said. "It just makes all the difference in the world."