Nowadays, a purse is sometimes larger than a handbag, especially when it's full of things for the children, like this one belonging to Stacey Donahue, a working mother of two. Cheerios, raisins and a toy cell phone can keep a child occupied.

Take a moment, now, to marvel at the mother of all multitaskers: the parent. Juggle a career, love a spouse, sit on the board of some nonprofit, attend church and baseball games and, oh yeah, schlep the kids.

Remember that movie "One Fine Day" from a decade ago? Michelle Pfeiffer played an architect; George Clooney a newspaper columnist. Both were divorced and parenting a child.

The storyline arcs toward romance with a quick detour here and there for some drama involving their jobs. What rescues Pfeiffer? Her purse! In one memorable scene, when her son soils her blouse just before a business meeting, she dives into her bag and pulls out his dinosaur t-shirt. And, of course, it fits her, because this is fiction. But the scene also helps elevate the movie some because as many a working mother will attest, a properly outfitted bag can save the day.

"You have it packed at the door at all times so you can just grab it and run out the door," explains Stacey Donahue, a working mother of two. "It's a little like a mom's BlackBerry. It's a place to keep everything you need."

Like what?

Beyond those staples that almost all parents swear by — diapers, wipes, Cheerios and some kind of book or toy — Donahue also carries a plastic toy cell phone or, even, a banana that can sit in.

"Because he's only 14 months he doesn't really know it's not real," she says about son Finnegan. "He just loves saying 'Hello, hello, hello."'

Stephanie Ellis-Smith, another mother of two, heralds her iPod headphone for the distraction it provides for son Andrew.

"He'll wrap it around things. He'll get it tied into a knot," says Ellis-Smith. "Sometimes you're just caught waiting in an extra long line and if there's something they can entertain themselves a little bit with, it helps buy me some time."

Paco Hino is also quite fond of self-gratification, explains his mother, Tania Hino. But his needs are met with a cuchara, a wooden spoon like the one mom uses in the kitchen.

"He bites on it. He makes music with it. He tries to balance it on his head. He finds so many things to do with the spoon."

Brandon Lockwood, a stay-at-home dad, is a master of the parent pack-and-haul. The former bike messenger asked for two things last Christmas: a stroller and a new diaper bag, the latter preferably in some uber-masculine print. He now has an all-black bag, as well as a colored patchwork messenger bag, filled with the usuals — sippy cup, books, toys; crayons and spiraled notebook; a bib; that eating utensil known as a "spork."

The part-time EMT also always carries his CPR mask as well as a copy of daughter Abigael's birth certificate and her immunization record. "That way if anyone is watching her, or if she gets hurt, it's all there."

But it is Laura Penn who will attract all sorts of jealous sighs from parents. Penn explains:

"My daughter has an imaginary dog and an imaginary doghouse, so I make sure I never go anywhere without them. Because then if we forget something (Sandra Boynton book; "Walk The Line" CD) I say, 'Grace, go look in the doghouse.' And she'll go find it and or, maybe, sometimes the dog will have eaten it."

Brava mom.