I almost posted this as a comment on someone's blog who was legimately having a conversation about it and talking about women and kids and work and whatever. Really I respect that, but this is more about the conversation in general than the place of women and kids, which I think is a much more complex issue.
I just want to say this, almost to see if I'm the only one who feels this way. I just started grad school a year ago, and at that time the place I'm at had all these things about the "work-life balance" and I thought it was great. I was like "yay, they DO care about me." Now one year in, I'm pretty tired of hearing about it, and am not looking forward to having the discussion every year of grad/postdoc/assprof/prof as if it is some sort of new phenom that is exclusive to academia. It's just life. Work is a part of life, if your having a problem and wish you watched more TV with your hubby, then do it. If your job doesn't let you do that and you want to, find another job. I don't mean to sound bitter, but I guess I am reminded of that time when I was a senior in high school and there was a "what to expect in college" forum for a bunch of us nerds, and this girl asks if there's time to have a social life in college, and the guy just looked at her as if she was crazy.
4 years ago
Definitely with you on this. Too often I do hear it relegated to the context of parenting/gender roles, as you mention, but it's a life skill of its own. When people talk about time-management in college, they might be talking about balancing studying and partying in the short term, but it's our same responsibility to prioritize our lives and figure out/stick to the balance that is most fulfilling to us.
ReplyDelete..so, yes. We're lucky enough to be educated kids that don't live in a time of only factories and farms, so it's up to us to balance career, family, leisure, hobbies, and whatever else we feel we need. Might take some thought and effort, God forbid, but at least we don't have to work 14 hr days and GET to make these decisions. :D