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It was an average Saturday morning. I was running around the house trying to start laundry, the dishwasher, sweep, and plan how I was going to catch up on work over an always-too-short weekend. My eight-year old son was, in typical kid fashion, putting off his chores. After several rounds of instructing him to finish his chores so we could move on
with tasks for the day, I decided on a more direct approach. I started lecturing him on the value of work, saying things like, “you don’t play until you work,” and “Mommy has two jobs: one at the university and another as a therapist...” and started rattling off my functions in each of these positions, decrying anyone who put any manner of play before a day of labor. During my rant, his little face kept looking up at me in a straight stare, totally quiet. I stopped talking and stared back. He walked right up to me and stated quite calmly: “Mom, can I give you a hug so you can slow down?”
This incident was as sweet as it was horrifying to me. Life as an academic can, of course, be highly rewarding. Most of us as faculty enjoy a career where we study our passions and have a high degree of autonomy. We savor the flexibility of a schedule with our teaching and research. We appreciate democratic decision-making within systems of higher education, having support, good compensation, value workplace equity, and enjoy the flexibility and creativity inherent in having control over what we teach and how we teach it (Quraishi, Hussain, Syed, & Rahman, 2010).
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