From: lcheap@cac.washington.edu (Laurel Cheap )
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Is There A Mommy Track for Technical Professionals?
Date: 22 Jan 1993 21:46:53 GMT
Organization: UW Computing
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: redx.cac.washington.edu

In article <301@cnmhnet.UUCP>, keithg@cnmhnet.UUCP (keith garrard) writes:
|> In article <1993Jan19.061356.14467@fuug.fi> an6814@anon.penet.fi writes:
[among other things]
|> >I'd like to work part-time in order to spend more time with my infant,
|> >It seems as if a part-time career is non-existent in software engineering
|> >and in professional/technical jobs in general.  . . .

[among other things]
|> Whatever you do, please do your co-workers a favor and choose one
|> or the other.  Don't shortchange them by staying at home when the
|> youngun coughs one time, or rush out in the afternoon when the
|> school calls to have you pick up the youngun cause he sneezed.  
|> Your coworkers deserve to have someone there that they can depend on
|> to do their share.

I am frankly very offended by this attitude for many reasons:

1. My family is far more important than my job.  There's always someone
   else who can do my job but there is no one else who can be Brendan's 
   Mommy when he needs me.  What happened to all of the "family values"
   talk recently?  My son growing up thinking Mommy's job is more 
   important that he is doesn't sound very "valuable" or healthy to me.

2. My sick child is MY responsibility, not anyone else's.  I pay the
   day care provider (and later teacher) to care for (teach) a healthy,
   ready to play (learn) child.  If my child is not prepared for that
   type of environment then I should remove him from it rather than
   leave him there to be miserable and detract from the other children's
   enjoyment (learning).  Not to mention the fact that he could be
   contagious and make everyone else miserable too.

3. Sick leave is a benefit at my university job.  I've earned every day  
   of sick leave that I've taken.  Do you also begrudge your coworkers
   taking sick leave when they are sick themselves?

4. Taking sick leave to care for a dependent doesn't mean that my work
   doesn't get done.  I make up the time if necessary to get a project
   completed on time.  Besides, intelligent project planning should 
   incorporate potential sick leave, vacations and other normal short-
   term scheduling conflicts.

It's this kind of attitude that stereotypes working mothers and makes
it even more difficult for us to succeed in the technical professions.
Just because my job is not my life does not mean that I don't work just
as hard or harder than my coworkers.  Sure there are timing conflicts
when my son is sick but that doesn't mean that I'm taking anything away
from my job to care for him.

To answer the original posters concerns:  I think that part-time and
telecommuting options are becoming more and more common as the attitudes
and technology are rising to meet the demand.  As more and more women
get into the field and more and more men spend working hours caring for
children the situation is changing.

Personally, I was able to take six months off and return to work at 50%
then work my way up to 80% currently.  Brendan is 17 months old now and
I treasure the day off I have to be with him.  This situation is a good
balance for us - daycare for 7 hrs a day, daddy time in the afternoons,
family time in the evenings and weekends, and mommy day during the week.
I feel that I'm giving enough of myself to my job and keeping current
without taking too much away from my family.  Since my husband is a
teacher, it's very complicated for him to leave work in the middle of
the day so I do all of the sick child duty.  If his job weren't so 
limiting, my husband would share in this responsibility.  That being the
case, I then either use sick leave or make up the time on my day off
depending on project deadlines.  Working part-time makes this type of
flexibility possible.

The bottom line is that everyone is different and needs to find their
own balance.  If you can, try different schedules until you find out
what fits for you.  

A Mommy teetering precariously on the work-family teeter-totter,
which makes it even harder to get off of my soap box now :)
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Laurel Cheap           University of Washington   lcheap@u.washington.edu
Information Systems    Seattle, Washington  USA   a.k.a. Brendan's mommy
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Newsgroups: misc.kids