Mom guilt has always chased me, however i consciously rebel against the societally unjust placement of it upon me, and yes it is amplified to the next level.

Silver lining: those guilting me are so physically far away i can barely hear them. (I just click mute, lol).

1/n https://twitter.com/denisejcai/status/1259205023826948098

It is shocking how many people are oblivious to the predicament that parents of young children are in...

... though the overall reaction when i explain it (for the 100th time) is compassion and understanding...

2/n

Which motivates me to try to explain it to as many people as possible to raise awareness within my microcommunity about how until the collapse of society is repaired (with childcare and schools) that I can’t be expected to work full time...

3/n

This is a luxury (to be able to state my predicament to my professional network without expecting negative consequences) that not everybody has.

The disadvantage placed on parents of young children (especially moms) further amplifies the already gaping disparity.

4/n

Hopefully an equally-amplified dialogue about this societal regression will force the implementation of policies and the articulation of mindsets about how significantly protracted reductions in productivity should be evaluated in the years and decades to come.

5/n

Important to note my guilt certainly extends to all my trainees. All of their perceived productivity will also be negatively impacted by my need to parent as well as “profess” since I am a bottleneck to making their work perceptible to the world (via talks and papers)

6/n

So the disparity between parents and non-parents, and between genders (due to societally programmed guilt) will grow in a step-wise function with this global pandemic... masked by other, perhaps more acute fears/worries, like a cancer.

*Unless...*

7/n

We must stay vigilant on this issue of pandemic-amplified-disparity and begin addressing/preventing it BEFORE this cancer of cloaked disparity metastasizes deep into the circulatory system of academia in an irreversible way...

8/n

I am very grateful to work in a career with a longer view of timelines, thought the subjective evaluation of them needs to be standardized by expectations that the impact of lab shut downs and school closures will affect everyone differently — not within their control.

9/n

That a dramatic, sustained drop in productivity for parents (or anyone who works with us) is no indication we are not excellent scientists wholly-committed to our pursuit of understanding... but that our commitment to the people who depend on us the most is the greatest.

10/n

That the impact of this unprecedented event on career trajectories will be variable. Affecting those at vulnerable career stages (postdoc, pre-tenure) the most, and affecting the mentors and mentees of parents (esp single parents, parents of young/special needs/many kids).

11/n

Let’s remember we are all in this together, however isolated we might feel.

The world will keep turning, we will keep adapting.

Science will still matter.

All members of our delicate scientific ecosystem matter, too.

Let’s avoid myopic evaluations of productivity.

12/12