Some people think putting your kid on Facebook might be bad for your job prospects
When I started reading this piece about why you shouldn’t put photos of yourself with your kid all over your Facebook profile I was all “Yeah yeah yeahhhh, another post about why this is bad for kids.” BUT THEN I actually paid attention to what I was reading and realized that the case being made is that splashing personal details of your life with your child(ren) online can impact YOU negatively in the career field.
The topic of this article is totally NOT one that I support, but I do feel like the possibility of being discriminated against for sharing your kid’s lives on social networking websites is worth discussing. You can’t change a practice like this if you don’t know about it!
Did you leave your job and awesome health insurance when you got pregnant?
My husband and I are in our early 30s and we really want to start a family. We got pregnant last August, but sadly had a miscarriage in October. Before becoming pregnant we decided that after the baby’s birth I would quit my job so I could finish my master’s and move on to a doctoral degree. I hate my current job (and I don’t use the word hate lightly!)… but it’s in the same universe as what I want to do, has really great pay, and awesome health insurance. On paper it’s an amazing job, but I find it wholly unsatisfying.
How do you maintain career momentum after parenthood?
Kids are definitely in the cards for my partner and I, but so is having a career. My mother worked all through my childhood, and I think it had a great influence on my sister and I, so I know working parents are good parents. But my mother worked for the government and I work in the creative industries, putting in 14 hour days and having maybe one or two weekends off a month. I see almost no women in the more senior positions in my industry, and those that do don’t have kids.
Zoo animals and kids: they’re basically the same thing
My partner and I don’t have kids yet, but we’re trying. As more of my friends squeeze out little bundles of joy, I’m struck by how similar zookeepers and parents really are. For one, we’re both obsessed with poop. Moreover, we take our jobs as caregivers very, very seriously. When you have another life depending on you, it’s time to step up your game. Here are five ways that being a zookeeper will make me a better parent.
I’m living the freelancing work-from-home parent dream… sort of
Apparently Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, and Deepak Chopra were all in Harvard Square on February 29th for the launch of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way foundation. I was in Harvard Square, too, but I didn’t catch a glimpse of them. I was there just for the fifteen minutes it took me to FedEx a book back to a client. Then I got home and discovered that a chunk of the proofread I had just mailed was still sitting on my desk. My desk isn’t even very crowded (for me, anyway), but I had cleverly separated out the last section of the book to cross-check against the earlier sections, and that turned out to be a bad plan because no one wants their proofread back with the last 20 pages missing. I couldn’t believe it. I had never done anything like this before. How could it have happened?
3 things I wish I’d done differently when I was pregnant
Since conception we have often joked about the magical powers of the iconic seafood restaurant chain. So this weekend we returned, which got me thinking about pregnancy, specifically my pregnancy and that a year ago I was just two months pregnant, blissfully unaware that I was having two babies rather than one. There are so many things about my pregnancy that I wouldn’t change, but there are others that I wish that I could do over again.
How can I easily navigate the transition back to working outside the home?
I’m getting ready to go back to work, but here’es the catch: I haven’t done paid work in six years. I am feeling so anxious about every step of the process: proving that even though I didn’t get paid, I’ve built skills steadily along the way; learning how to get back into the groove of dealing with co-workers; what might make the transition easier for me and my two sons, right down to wondering what professional women wear nowadays.
Post-It Notes: an interview with the stay-at-home dad behind “Message With A Bottle”
Chris Illuminati, the stay-at-home dad behind Message With a Bottle, uses Post-It notes to remind himself of the joys and pitfalls of parenting.