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  • Mothering at Mid-Career: Working the System

    By Libby Gruner February 2, 2009 9:54 pm

    There’s a block of time on my calendar this morning marked “work at home or behind closed doors: grade” and another one commanding me, an hour later, to shift over to my research project for another couple of hours.

    It seemed like a good idea at the time.

    Last week I participated in a lunchtime panel discussion of balancing research and teaching, and one of the other panelists mentioned that her own ability to do so was vastly improved by her rigid scheduling. She mentioned to-do lists and blocks of time on a calendar, and I dutifully took notes, and even gave it a try.

    I’m not giving up yet, but I will say that today’s experiment demonstrated why rigid scheduling doesn’t work well for me. First of all, I’m a little unrealistic sometimes about time. I had the first block of time starting at 8, which is reasonable on a normal school day: NIck is out of the house at 7 and I can either follow soon after or head up to my office. But he’s got the day off today, so I started a little later (this shouldn’t necessarily follow, but today it did) and, besides, he was sick and I felt like hanging around a little while to see how things were going to go. But it’s not just the family time that got me off track; it’s my own resistance to scheduling and rules. Sigh.

    So, bottom line: enough grading got done, but very little research. What did I learn? First, that one size does not fit all. Just because a very productive colleague has a method doesn’t mean I should adopt that method. My colleague with the system, by the way, also noted that she found one hour was plenty of prep time for her classes; that after that, she was just spinning her wheels. In the moment, when she said it, I nodded my head: one hour right before class is about what I need, too.

    After I’ve done the reading and the grading, that is. I’m teaching Victorian novels, and I usually end up bringing them home for 4-5 hours of evening reading when the “work day” is done. She’s an economist, and I’m not; I’m going to need a little more time.

    On the other hand, second, one day of only partial success should probably not be justification for dumping the whole system. I’ll keep trying to block out time for research, and grading, but I’ll also be a little more flexible, recognizing that the unexpected will happen, and that I can deal with it. After all, I got into this job partly for the flexibility; I just need to remember to use it more effectively.

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Comments on Mothering at Mid-Career: Working the System

  • Finding time
  • Posted by Aeron on February 4, 2009 at 12:50pm EST

  • First of all, teaching Victorian novels requires an extra few hours a week! *I always re-read everything, do you?)

    Most sage advice says to work in short, daily periods on research, but I find that difficult. It takes some time to get back into the project, and it's hard to concentrate when there are a thousand small tasks ahead....

  • Posted by Libby on February 4, 2009 at 10:20pm EST

  • Aeron, I do reread everything. Even Jane Eyre, which I've taught countless times. It's a pleasure, but it's also necessary.

  • time to write
  • Posted by phree , dr. on February 5, 2009 at 3:00pm EST

  • Just my two cents: I've read almost every book about combining research and writing. Most are written by men who don't seem to have childcare responsibilities. I also find it hard to get back into my project in short snippets. Anything I produce from these sessions is wildly unsuccessful (paper abstracts, conference submissions) or I throw it away and rewrite when I have time to really go in-depth.

    What have I concluded from these attempts? Either I am the worst philosopher ever, or teaching 16 courses on a quarter schedule plus two at another institution, combined with caring for a 3 year old boy is just too much. I'm so discouraged that I think of quitting everyday after wasting the last 20 years of my life trying to make it work. When I was child free, there was much more time to work. (It makes me feel like a bad mom for admitting it, but it is indeed true).

    I am curious as to how the tenured moms, who live a much better life, approach these dilemmas?

  • Posted by Suzanne Smith on February 11, 2009 at 9:26am EST

  • Not all academics are writers. Many are teachers who find writing difficult. Has it occurred to any of the moms here that their scholarship is not where it needs to be because writing is not their strength? Maybe it isn't the kids? Experience has shown me that the production of scholarship is not related to the number of kids you have. Yes, many people without kids get lots accomplished. But many people without kids get nothing published or very little. Daycare exists. Summers off from teaching exist. Sunday afternoons exist. I have four children (ages 16-4). I work full time at one university as the director of publications overseeing a staff of eight. I am also pursing a graduate degree in english at another university. My husband is a history professor who just got a contract for his second book. He is the one who stays home when the kids are sick and gets them
    to school in the morning. Since I work year round he spends most of his summers with them. He still publishes regularly. I still get all of my work done. I am not saying we are doing everything right or are somehow better than anyone. I am saying if you are going to publish you will publish -- regardless of how full the household is.

  • Posted by Libby Gruner on February 13, 2009 at 8:50am EST

  • phree, I'm amazed that you teach as much as you do and even have time to read IHE! I think the time demands of parenting do diminish over time, especially when kids start school. But I also think you've articulated one of the terrible binds of academe, esp. of adjunct life: in order to work enough to pay the bills, you can't find the time to write the articles/books that would enable you to find a job with--ta-da!--more time to write.

    Suzanne, I'm glad you've been able to find the time yourself, but the point I was trying to make here (perhaps imperfectly) is that at least some writing really does take large chunks of time, at least for some writers. The advice-givers seem to have different work habits, but it doesn't necessarily mean the ones who need the larger chunks of time are not accomplished scholars. Indeed, some of my most productive colleagues are those who simply don't come to campus a few days a week, working at home or behind closed doors--as I, imperfectly, attempted to do myself! As for the "teachers who find writing difficult"--well, I don't find writing difficult, but I do spend more time on teaching, as my more recent blog post indicates. We all make different choices; they are not, however, all equally valued.

  • accepting failure is not an option
  • Posted by phree on March 1, 2009 at 5:15pm EST

  • Suzanne & Libby:
    Thanks for your kind words and reflections. I am a regular full-timer at a proprietary school (no name) on a quarter system with only 4 weeks vacation/year. I work at school B to have at least some contact with the academic world. it also pays much better than the proprietary school and makes the ungodly student loan payments manageable.

    Though I do like to teach and am very proficient at it, my primary interest in academia is writing. Thus, the proprietary school is a very bad fit, but an economic necessity at this time.

    I'm not giving up, but I have no summers off and am at the end of my rope in academia. I did produce lots more pre-kid, but like being a mom too. Do I eat, pay my mortgage/student loans (I have no other debt), provide insurance for my family (another main reason I stay at the proprietary school) or risk it all for a tenure track job that likely does not exist? Though the answer seems obvious, I never signed on to be "a glorified high school teacher." If I wanted that career, I would have pursued it long ago. This forum is Mama Ph.D., not mama teacher. Thus, I want to have more balance between teaching and writing, not give the one thing I love about academia up?!?!

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