totally unrelated to actually being in the same vicinity as my children.
As long-time readers know, I am deep into that weird world of academia where babies -ought- to be entirely compatible with flexible work schedules and a career which is generally short on the 9 to 5, firm deadlines genre. However, my department and university have not exactly been thrilled about my "willful choice" to have children. And since I am in a heavily male-dominated subfield where any mention of home life/children/non-academic life is seen as an indication of weakness, I tend not to mention my babies unless directly asked. I, after all, managed to teach a class starting at 3 weeks post-partum without once mentioning that I had a baby.
Which is all background to the rather odd experience I had today when a student mentioned something about the challenge of having kids (in the context of what we were discussing, which was something rather technical) and out popped: Oh, I have 2. It was actually quite delightful to watch the 3 female undergrads in the class look up surprised, and not so shockingly all 3 stayed after to carry on the conversation and ask about life with babies and a soon-to-be-written PhD. In a weird way on the spot I felt the need to tell these little girls (18-22 is so young) that real life goes on, that it is possible (albeit hardly elegantly) to have babies and discuss X. Just an odd little moment in my life.
Medical update: Apparently ringwo.rm is itchy, not painful. So make that rin.gworm AND staph. And no, there are no oral meds to treat it that our ok for breastfeeding. Oh well. Will be making do with lotions and potions and lots of patience. And an imaginary washing machine to keep my baby from catching it.
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Good for you. It's wonderful being noticed for our accomplishments and talents and brains- but being mothers are also such a huge part of our identities that getting the chance to marry the two sides of our lives is wonderful.
And Yikes on ringworm (and all the other stuff below!) Our little Bear has all these bug bites and while I am 99.9% sure they are from a rogue late summer mosquito, I am freaked about bedbugs. Despite obsessively checking every so often since we live on the east coast, there was evidence of a prior infestation found at my job, and I am traveling more. We are good, but still... hope the Dumpling comes out unscathed as well!
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