I’ve been thinking about parenting and productivity. Here are some thoughts. This is just my experience, and I definitely don’t speak for all parents, all working parents, etc. 1/14

First, parenting definitely makes you MORE efficient. I can get way more done in an hour than I used to, I dick around on social media way less, and I’m better at using tiny snippets of time as I find them. 2/14

But, that increase in efficiency does not make up for the significantly restricted time that I have to work. Next few tweets are to remind myself that it’s ok that I’m spending LOTS of time on something (two little adorable people) that is very important to me. 3/14

I used to work from about 8 to 6. Not every day, and see previous note on how inefficient I was. But even with daycare, the protected work time I have is about 9:30 until 4 (traveling to dropoff and pickup mean I have less work time than when my kid is actually at daycare). 4/14

So subtract about 2 hours per day which is already 10 hours per week! 5/14

Do you ever work on the weekends? I did. Not a lot, just a couple of hours a day. My partner and I would often go to a coffee shop and get some work done in a nice leisurely way. Or sometimes I would catch up on grading if I needed to. Not anymore. So minus another 4 hours. 6/14

I used to teach almost exclusively in the evenings. It’s good for students who work full time, I liked it because it was a way to get more productive time out of my day. Post-kids I need to teach during the day. That’s another 5 hours per week. 7/14

So altogether my work week is about 19 hours shorter per week post-kids compared to pre-kids. Again, I’m better at using that time. But wow, that’s a huge difference. 8/14

And that’s a perfect week, with no sick kids, no daycare disruptions, no doctor/dentist/etc appointments. 9/14

What this means is that I’m just less productive right now. That’s ok, this is a time of my life where I’m prioritizing something else, and I’m really ok with that. 10/14

There have been previous times in my life where I’ve prioritized work, and I’m confident there will be more times like that in my future. 11/14

It also means that I have very little wiggle room. The work time I have is dominated by teaching, class prep, and service commitments. I squeeze in research as much as I can, but when something happens (sick kid, etc), that’s often the only piece that can shift. 12/14

To be clear, I have no regrets. I’m glad I worked more before I had kids. I’m glad I had kids. And I’m glad I prioritize spending time with them right now. But it did totally blow my mind just how much having kids changed my work lifestyle. 13/14

So this thread is mostly just for me, and all the other parents out there who might sometimes feel like we have no time. We feel that way because it’s true. 14/14