{"id":286,"date":"2015-11-04T12:28:54","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T17:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/?p=286"},"modified":"2015-11-05T07:07:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T12:07:14","slug":"career-ambitions-and-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2015\/11\/04\/career-ambitions-and-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Career Ambitions and Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, I’ve got about 30 minutes before I take my twin son to the pulminologist. \u00a0You can read about what is going on with pneumonia in our family here<\/a>, here,<\/a>\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0and here<\/a>. \u00a0My personal blog is where I focus on my children and my experiences of being a mother.<\/p>\n

In this blog entry, I want to focus on the challenges of being a professional with some (actually, more than some) ambitions in her career while also dealing with children with a chronic illness. \u00a0My twins have asthma: they came out before they were fully cooked. \u00a0So, we have challenges that \u00a0other families don’t. \u00a0For example, I’m really not sure whether or not my twin son will end up in the hospital this afternoon, tonight, or tomorrow–or whether we’ve been able to dodge that bullet. \u00a0The one thing I will say about that is it’s Wednesday, and we’ve been in this hospital frequently enough to know and be excited that they serve fried chicken and collard greens on Wednesday. \u00a0#Silverlinings<\/p>\n

My family comes first. \u00a0When they are sick I am focused on their health, throwing as much attention into the data points of their fevers and oxygen levels as I do in finalizing a confirmatory factor analysis. \u00a0I don’t go to meetings; I make alternative arrangement for classes. \u00a0I ask for extensions on deadlines.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean (even when I’m focusing 100% on them), that I’m not ALSO wishing I was working on some of my really fun (and I think important) research projects and working with some of my\u00a0students and\u00a0helping them progress through the program.<\/p>\n

I know that by saying this I risk looking an uncaring mother, right? \u00a0“While my children are sick, I’d really rather be working on analyzing that latest data and getting our paper out to JPSP!” What I mean though is that I focus on my family. I\u00a0put them ahead of everything else. \u00a0But I still really, really<\/em> <\/strong>like my work. \u00a0And I see the sacrifice(s) in my career that I\u00a0have to make. I do it willingly. \u00a0But it is a loss for me.<\/p>\n

I have to mourn that loss a little. \u00a0And then focus back on making sure my little man doesn’t get any sicker. \u00a0And that my little squirrel doesn’t end up in the hospital too. \u00a0Oddly, hospitals do not offer two-for-one specials.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I’ve got about 30 minutes before I take my twin son to the pulminologist. \u00a0You can read about what is going on with pneumonia in our family here, here,\u00a0here,\u00a0and here. \u00a0My personal blog is where I focus on my children and my experiences of being a mother. In this blog entry, I want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p67nDP-4C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":143,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2011\/09\/14\/sabbatical\/","url_meta":{"origin":286,"position":0},"title":"Sabbatical","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"September 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am on sabbatical this semester, although at UNCC, we call it reassignment of duties leave. \u00a0(I think it's illegal to call it sabbatical in NC. \u00a0WHOOPS!) \u00a0So I tell people that I'm on leave this fall, which of course makes them think I'm sitting around eating bonbons and watching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":338,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/04\/13\/academic-colleagues\/","url_meta":{"origin":286,"position":1},"title":"Academic Colleagues","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"April 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I understand how it can go both ways in academia.\u00a0 You can have colleagues who are really part of your family.\u00a0 And you have colleagues you are, um, not. Whichever way it happens, academic colleagues are completely unlike colleagues in other organizations. Academia is the last career in which you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":274,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2015\/04\/14\/productivity-hints\/","url_meta":{"origin":286,"position":2},"title":"Productivity Hints","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"April 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It is ironic that I am writing this blog entry today. \u00a0My 5 year old twin son is home sick with a tummy bug and my \"productivity\" is suffering as I hear the strains of \"NinjaaaaGO!\" \u00a0And \"Go! Go! Samurai!\" wafting up the stairs from his resting place on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2015\/05\/18\/the-op-ed-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":286,"position":3},"title":"The Op-Ed Project","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"May 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Once, a bazillion years ago, when I worked for Citicorp POS, I had a life changing experience. \u00a0The executives took the entire company down to Florida from Connecticut for a three\u00a0day ropes team building course. \u00a0It was amazing, but not for the reason the executives anticipated. I have an enormous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":234,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2013\/05\/16\/summer-productivity\/","url_meta":{"origin":286,"position":4},"title":"Summer Productivity","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"May 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"During the school year, when I'm working nights and weekends just to keep up with teaching and service duties, I always think the summer is going to be full of butterflies and kittens while works of brilliance shoot out of my fingers into my laptop. \u00a0I imagine high impact papers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/03\/16\/spring-break-study-abroad-to-prague-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":286,"position":5},"title":"Spring Break Study Abroad to Prague: Part 3","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This entry should be titled: Professors Learn Things, too. In addition to focusing on what the students can learn about multicultural teams in multinational organizations, I also used this trip as a way to enrich my own understanding of work and employees.\u00a0 I'm an organizational scientist.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I do not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}