One of the first things a new parent will tell you is that their sleep schedule quickly becomes so out of whack that it more or less doesn’t exist.
That’s a rough situation at the best of times but when you also find yourself in the middle of high-level graduate studies during a pandemic, the stresses of parenthood can become downright nightmarish.
And while we’d like to think that the people in our lives will be supportive and understanding about these new challenges, the reality is that this isn’t always the case.
So while one professor might not have thought one wholesome decision he made to help one of his grad students bridge that work/life gap was such a big deal, it’s made a significant impression on her and those who have been in her situation.
When Karen Cunningham was considering graduate programs, she both knew that she wanted to have a baby while she was in grad school and that it wouldn’t be easy.
So as she told Good Morning America, her choice of university would depend a great deal on how they reacted to that intention.
But while she was encouraged by the response she received from MIT’s biology department, it’s unlikely that she predicted exactly how supportive the professor she’d be working with would be.
On May 7, Professor Troy Littleton tweeted out a photo of a crib he had installed in his office so Cunningham’s nine-month-old daughter Katie would have somewhere safe to stay while she worked.
Although Cunningham told Good Morning America that her husband was in a position that he could stay home with the baby before she starts day care in the fall, Littleton’s gesture was still very helpful to her when she needs to pop into the lab.
As she said, “There’s the solid, focused six to eight hours of work that you wouldn’t want to bring a baby in for, but then there’s the lab errands that you do here and there and that’s when it’s really useful. I can put Katie down and just go do something quick and I can see her and talk to her and she can nap in there. It’s great.”
It seems that Littleton’s idea couldn’t have come at a better time as the pandemic has had a significant effect on Cunnigham’s parenting plans, as it has for working parents the world over.
As she put it, “The first year of being a parent is hard and it’s helpful to have a lot of support. I think during the pandemic parents have been isolated from a lot of their support so [the crib] is definitely an add on and a really wonderful one.”
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Meanwhile, Littleton reported receiving messages from his research peers asking how they can better support working mothers after his tweet picked up his steam.
And that’s not even mentioning the outpouring of appreciation his tweet has received from other parents who work in science.
Others who run labs said this inspired them to do the same when they see their first “lab baby” while others were just relieved to see someone in his position treat their grad students like human beings rather than machines.
As one person said, “So much better than when I was told to bring my baby in a backpack and put the backpack on the floor while I did experiments with carcinogenic agents.”
These responses came as a surprise to Littleton who said he only posted the tweet because he was excited to see Katie for the first time.
But in his words, “I’m glad it had that effect because we need to be solving these issues, both in academia and on a broader level as well. It’s highlighted that this is a really important issue for our community.”
h/t: Good Morning America
