Does It Matter Where I Live?
-
Very interesting post and This type post is most important for peoples. I want to appreciate with this Gustavo Woltmann
-
I have been thinking a lot about Jake, Will, and Lee's answer to the question from the woman who has three pre-school kids and is wondering if she can start a project given her limited time. I love the podcasts and I think Jake, Will, and Lee try very hard to not bring their bias into their answers but in this case their answer felt just a little off and I wondered if they would have answered a man differently (and my memory from past podcasts may be that in fact, they have.)
It seems like the best way to cope with these kinds of questions is to remove specifics and say, for example: "A and B have three school age children. A works at a full time job outside of the home. B is an illustrator who is tending the children during the day. How can B work on projects and advance B's career in illustration while not negatively impacting the children?" The gender of A and B is not specified and so A and B could be respectively a man and a woman, a woman and a man, two women, or two men. The genders of the participants are really immaterial to the question but when you specify the gender, it's hard for any of us to let go of subconscious bias.
Thinking of it without gender, however, it seems like the best approach would be for A and B to discuss their arrangements and try to find a way to provide B the time B needs to work on a project. This may involve reducing A's hours so that A can be at home some of the time, or seeking child care/daycare for at least a few hours a week, or having A take on child care duties in evening or early morning so B can have an hour or two a day for a project. The size of the project B takes on would depend on A and B's discussion as to how many hours they can together carve out for B's work. The important thing would be for A to recognize B's needs and as partners prioritize one another's needs along with the children's needs.
There is no question that pre-schoolers require a lot of time and energy but the adults' lives don't have to stop completely if the parents commit to a real partnership with one another as well as to the children. I raised three kids as a single parent and worked full time while doing it (not as an illustrator but still full time) so I'm thinking that two parents must be able to work out a way for "B" to do some illustrating before the kids are in school.
Just my two cents.
-
Hi everyone! I am a religious podcast listener, but not an active poster on the forums. However, I had to come over and chime in on the question about working moms. I love the podcast, but no offense, Jake, Will and Lee were a little out of their expertise on that one, bless your hearts.
I really appreciate the previous comments by @Whitney-Simms and @demotlj. I think they add some great perspective.
I am a mom of 4 young kids and I am also a professional working illustrator. I work in art licensing doing a lot of mass market product artwork: notebooks, gift cards, wrapping paper, gift products, fabric, etc. It's extremely hard and a little messy to balance the two, but it can be done. I do only work part-time and I have to be very efficient with my time, but I have a successful career.
One of the most helpful things I can recommend to other moms trying to figure out how to make it work is this podcast:
https://thealisonshow.com/podcasts/ep-77-but-whos-going-to-watch-the-kids-the-great-childcare-debate/I guess my biggest point I wanted to make is, if you want to make it happen, you can. You don't have to wait til your kids are older. (But also... it's ok if you choose to do that!) I wanted to give that optimistic outlook to other working moms trying to get going on things. It's gonna be hard, its going to take some sacrifice and juggling. Having good childcare or some kind of arrangement like @demotlj mentioned in her "A and B" example is key. Also, we eat frozen things for dinner more often that I would prefer but hey.