Balancing kids + academic faculty life

In 2011, I started as a tenure-track faculty member department at a prestigious university having no idea what I was doing. I have always loved writing and always planned to start a blog to document the challenges and triumphs of achieving tenure as a young female in a male-dominated department. And then I had a kid, and then I had another kid, and before I knew it I actually achieved tenure. And then had another kid. In this blog I will write about today, and also recount the best and worse of times as I progressed through my career and continue to figure out how this all works. My background and training is in epidemiology, so I will use my population health lens and attention to data to embrace the topic. Some posts are ALL mama, and some are more academic, but most are a good mix of aca-mama.

"Don't Go Mama!"

November 01, 2017 by Rachel Patzer in Traveling, Work, Parenting

This month I definitely broke my "rules" of traveling and am in the midst of suffering the consequences. I've been to four cities in one month and I just plain feel like bad mom. Just before I left for my last trip, my two-year old son said "No mama, don't go mama!". My heart hurt. Where is my work/life balance?! I wanted to stay home, but it was too late to cancel the two talks I had to give at one of the biggest conferences in my field. And then I swore that from now on I was going to follow my travel "rules" and not let things get out of hand again.