Up until now I’ve avoided writing much about my career as an academic mama of three kids. This is not an area in which I consider myself an expert since I’m only five months into this adventure, but I’m also aware that the numbers of women in academia with three kids pretenure while on the tenure track is lower than it should be. A lot of women are uncertain of the career costs associated with three kids, are advised against having kids pretenure, or know enough about the archaic, patriarchical system to opt out of a tenure track position. We lose a lot of valuable contributing voices as a result. I had to tune out a lot of noise to get to this place.
For me, I always tend to make decisions based on what I might regret in the future. In the case of three kids, would I regret not getting tenure but having three kids or would I regret having three kids but not getting tenure? It wasn’t a tough decision in that sense. Because there’s also the option of “What if I don’t have three kids but ALSO don’t get tenure?”, which is always a possibility.
Next is the question of how to make it all fit into the 168 hours I am given each week. That’s what I’m going to try to write more about. The how. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s hard. And it’s crazy hard during a pandemic with all three kids at home (which was never our plan, obviously). I’ll work on sharing some of my philosophies that guide my decision making, as well as modeling what my daily work/family life looks like. I don’t do any of this perfectly, but by grounding myself in my values, and one important word (Calm), I think I do it well most days. And honestly, that’s all I can ask of myself during these early years, and especially during another baby year!
Joyful Striving 