Working-from-home mom on conference call (video)

 

Genevieve Brown documented what it is like to work

 from home with kids 

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Science mom’s work-from-home tweet goes viral

 SALT LAKE CITY — The first photo shows Gretchen Goldman — who is research director for the Center of Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and has a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology — during a Monday interview with CNN.

She was on air to critique the appointment of David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology, to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Goldman, a scientist and mother of two young boys, appeared in her professional-looking canary yellow blazer and is seated in front of a blanket-covered couch. Vacation photos hang against a cream-painted wall in the background.

The second photo shows the reality of Goldman’s cable news-studio-from-home surroundings. Toys are scattered everywhere. Her computer is resting on a chair stacked atop a coffee table. And the busy mom’s yellow blazer is paired with black shorts and sandals.

Scientist and mother Gretchen Goldman never expected her message to go viral.

 “It’s really neat to see the response, especially from moms and other parents struggling right now,” she said in a telephone interview.

Goldman and her husband — who is also a working scientist — are raising 2- and 4-year-old boys in their D.C. home. She laughs when she says she and her husband are “just trying to put out fires” with the two boys at their demanding ages.

 “I wanted to be honest about the situation that we are all struggling with now and make it more visible that parents are dealing with these challenges right now.”

Goldman hopes her viral tweet can help normalize the existence of children in workspaces and the idea that people are caregivers, as well as employees.

The life of a working parent isn’t easy, but the pandemic has made things more difficult, Goldman said.

Parents, especially moms, have the “added challenges and burdens and mental load that is required to care for kids and also be expected to be in the workforce. And the way that parents have made that work is by having external support and that’s been removed in this situation for the pandemic. I think the stress of all of that really makes parents exhausted by 5 p.m. everyday,” she said.

From Deseret News

The final 2020 US presidential debate (captions)

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A French schoolteacher

PALAISEAU, France (Reuters) - Sylvain Helaine, 35, is a schoolteacher whose body, face and tongue are covered in tattoos after spending 460 hours under tattooists’ needles.

He says that, after an initial shock when they see him for the first time, his pupils see past his appearance.

Last year he was teaching kindergarten at the Docteur Morer Elementary School in Palaiseau, a suburb of Paris, when the parents of a three-year-old child complained to educational authorities. They said their son, who was not taught by Helaine, had nightmares after seeing him.

A couple of months ago the school authorities informed him he could no longer teach kindergarten children since pupils under six “could be frightened by his appearance”. Anyway, he could teach older kids.

Despite the setbacks, Helaine will stick with his chosen career. “I’m a primary school teacher ... I love my job.”

He started getting tattoos at the age of 27 when, while teaching at a private school in London, he had an “existential crisis”. Since then, he said, “Getting tattoos is my passion.”

He hopes to show his pupils that they should accept people who are different from the norm. “Maybe when they are adults they will be less racist and less homophobic and more open-minded,” he said.

From Reuters (edited)