next »

[olandaku]

I am in one, it pays quite well, has good benefits for everyone in my famiy, and is potentially renewable almost infinitely, which provides me with job security. It doesn't look great and amazing on a CV, but I have made time to do research and publish, and will hopefully not look terrible when I go on the market again. What I am wondering about is if I have my first baby next year, which I am hoping to do, what will happen to my research. One then has far less time, plus academia is not my only interest (I am also a writer) and I don't want my creative work to disappear. Do you think this imperils someone in this situation, since theoretically we should all be clamoring to get out of these lectureships and publishing, publishing, publishing? Is this better or worse than having a kid while on the tenure track? Thank you in advance for your insights.

[mj_romo]

I am an adjunct with a 2-yr-old.  About 5 years ago (when I had been adjuncting 4 years already), my husband and I realized that we couldn't wait to start a family until one of those tenure-track positions "came along."   

Some of the concerns, of course, are where is health insurance coming from?  Does it cover pregnancy (not all adjunct/lecturer plans do)?  What will happen if you have a problem pregnancy and have to go on bedrest?  (Some plans only cover you for the amount of "sick leave" that you have and then expire.) What will you do about teaching when the baby arrives?  Will you get a maternity leave, or will you have to be back in the classroom after 2 weeks?  What kind of time committment are you making to teaching right now?

As for continuing your research and writing efforts?  From a time-management perspective,  I got a VAP position the year after my DD was born, and found the experiencce entirely managable.  If anything - other than the usual exhaustion - her first year was entirely manageable.  I managed teaching a full-load, participating on committees, researching and writing within a reasonable time-frame every week - often less than 40 hours, 10-12 of which I did at home. 

As she became more active, more talkative and more exploratative, it's become much more of a challenge - and now I'm teaching 2 classes and doing something administrative, almost entirely from home. 

I hope this helps.  If not, I'm sure someone else will have a better answer.

[hyfinia]

Well I think it all depends on the baby and your family situation.  I am also in a non tenure track position.  My baby is 17 months; my husband is also in academia.  During the first few months my son has "colic" he just would not sleep at night and from 6pm to about 1am he was very irritable.  Needless to say there was very little we could get done at this time.

If you have help either from family members or a baby sitter then it could be manageable; for us it was just the both of us .  Not all babies are like that though I have friends whose babies slept through the night without any problems that is not my experience.

If you are planning on starting a family I say go for it.  What I have learned is that while it may be challenging there are ways to adjust.

[square]

I'm sure it does depend on your personal situation, your professional interests, etc. I have been doing some thinking along similar lines. I can't give advice about what it is like with a family, as I haven't had children yet. I'm a post-doc overseas and have another few years left on my contract, but hope to go the route of a TT academic job in the US soon. I've been doing some thinking of when to start a family and when "the right time" is. I just don't think that these things often go to plan. There are important questions about healthcare, etc. raised by others, but I wonder if there will ever be a "right" time, a "right" job, a "right" amount of $$...

[jgs3820]

I am finishing up my (humanities) Ph.D. this year and have a 20-month old child (DC). I gave birth the summer before I had a research grant, so I didn't have any teaching duties that following year. I stayed at home with DC for the first six months and then placed DC in daycare part time that January so I could start back to work on my research and writing. This year, DC is in daycare full-time, I am teaching one class and getting ready to deposit and defend.

I have a couple of thoughts:
1) Every baby is different, and your baby's temperament and health will have an impact on your life in a big way. My child cried for five months straight; I was exhausted all the time and frustrated because there was little I could do to comfort him. I was lucky that I didn't have teaching duties, because I wouldn't have been able to do it. Thankfully, my child is healthy, but you often don't know in advance if your child will have health issues that will require a lot of your time, money and effort to deal with.

This brings me to point 2): Another factor is the amount and quality of resources you will have to help you with raising your child. This includes financial resources as well as emotional resources and baby-care resources. If you have quality child-care, you can get a lot more done than if you are taking care of your baby on your own. And, if you have a deep well of patience and confidence to tap into, you will make it through any tough times much easier than if you don't.

I don't say these things to scare you, far from it. I say them to point out that there are a lot of variables that make up one's experience with having a baby. I think that any woman who wants to have a baby and work should be able to do so, BUT you have to know that it will require compromises and your life will NOT be the same. You will have to prioritize your work, and just know now that you won't be able to give it 100%. So, it is quite possible that one of your projects will have to be delayed or postponed, or maybe you won't do as good of a job on something as you might have pre-baby. In my case, this has meant accepting that my dissertation probably won't win any honors awards, but it will be DONE, and for me, this is the most important thing about it. My child has to come first, so if my dissertation has had to suffer a bit for it, so be it.

Good luck!

[adjunctus_defunctus]

Hello.

These are difficult issues, to be sure. There is no "right time" and there will NEVER be a right amount of money.  As far as the money goes, you spread out what you have and make daily sacrifices for the sake of your family.  If you are blessed with children, they need to come first.  We have too many children that are "neglected" by parents who put their careers first.  Sometimes things need to be put on hold for a while; one needs to balance and consider the relative importance of "life" and "work" as well as what will genuinely fullfil you as a person.  For myself, we had our first child after I left grad school to finish my thesis (we had been married two years; I never finished the thesis); our second was born two years later, by which time I was finished with doctoral coursework and working on the dissertation (fearing that I would not finish--see above), and our third was born as I was finishing up the dissertation and moving into the job market.  My wife works retail; she is not an academic.  Life has been full of struggle, but our family life strengthens us.  We are currently facing the loss of my adjunct position (our only income) as well as (my) mounting student loan debt of $70K.  That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  Although home life is hectic, the real stress comes from the condition of the economy, the emergent socialism from Washington, and the few jobs in my field for which i am competing against people with ten years of full-time college teaching experience; I have one).

It's not easy but, trust me, if you're thinkng about a family, go ahead and start.  Don't try to plan for all the contingencies now. Humanity's strength is in our ability to adapt to new situations.  We're creative academics and can handle whatever life throws at us.

[moxxx]

Is this how far we have come? Faculty are consumed with worrying about "when or if" to have children.  University's above all institutions should support families.  Place your desire to have children before your work.  If you are in an institution that pressures you to decide between children and work find another family friendly institution.  When you have completed your working years you won't look back and concern yourself with the research you never completed or the articles never published.  You will ask yourself why didn't I spend more time with my children?  You cannot rewrite a child's life. And when it's time to pass you won't be looking at your bedside for the book you wrote; you will be looking for your children.