Blog — Toddler on the Tenure Track

Traveling to San Francisco with a Toddler

In January we headed to San Francisco for 5 days/4 nights for a conference (for my work). We were able to find quick/reasonably priced flights for a little under 100/pp round-trip, so Mike and Ellie joined me. We bought the tickets awhile ago, before we had our serious finance conversation. I’m not sure we’d spend ~200 on flights at the present moment (my flight was covered with startup funds). It was our first plane trip that didn’t end with a visit to see family on the east coast (and with people who could provide us with a free car seat and a ride after getting off the plane!).

Academic LifeJillFebruary 16, 2019traveling with a toddler, conference travel, travel, san franciscoComment

A Day in the Life of an Assistant Professor (January 2019)

It’s time for another edition of “a day in the life” of a tenure track faculty with a young kid! If you follow me on instagram you may have seen my post in January with a quote from Ellie where she asked, “Mama, are you still sad?” Given the “fun” that day started off with, I decided to track my time. It was my first day back to work after taking one official week off for winter break (which is always rough), plus working from home the week before that. Mixed with a really early wake-up call from Ellie, we had a bit of a rough day. Here’s how it went…

Academic LifeJillFebruary 2, 2019behind the scenes, a day in the life, sleepComment

13 Tips For a Smooth(er) Morning

Before I pick back up with the planning series, I thought I’d share a few quick tips that we use during our morning routine to make things go a little more smoothly!

If there’s anything I dislike more than rushing around in the morning, it’s rushing around with a toddler in the morning! Although there are only a handful of days when I absolutely need to be out the door by a certain time, we still inevitably find ourselves scrambling to do that one last thing before we head out. [Side note: If you haven’t read my other posts, Mike stays home with Ellie and we’re a one car family, so we have some flexibility in terms of time, but I do rely on Mike to drop me off at the train station.] Today I’m sharing some of the things that help us get out of the house in one piece in the morning.

Academic LifeJillDecember 18, 2018morning routine, mornings, scheduling, tips, getting dressedComment

8 Tips For Going on the Academic Job Market While Pregnant

If you haven’t had a chance to read (or skim!) my experiences on the academic job market while pregnant, you can find that post here. I did about 6 first round interviews when I was between 2 and 6 months pregnant. I then went on 1 campus interview when I was 7 months pregnant. I’ve put together a summary of my main takeaways from these experiences for those of you who are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant and also navigating the academic job market.

Academic LifeJillDecember 9, 2018job search, pregnancy, top postComment

Pregnancy + the Academic Job Search

Oh. My. Gosh. People love to give advice about the academic job market in general. Add in the fact that you’re also pregnant and the desire to impart wisdom goes through the roof! And of course if you don’t follow their advice there are dire consequences (i.e., you won’t get the job). That being said, I got a whole lot of advice, and to the best of my memory, only one of those people had been pregnant while searching.

Academic LifeJillDecember 8, 2018job search, pregnancy, reflection, top postComment

12 Things I Learned After Having a Baby During the Final Year of my PhD

I started graduate school in 2011, right after Mike and I got married. We knew kids were in our future and we knew that grad school and our geographic location were temporary. We figured the next place would be for the long haul so it made sense to wait until after our next move to have a kid. The original plan was that I’d finish school in 4 years, but life happened and I tacked on an additional year.

Academic LifeJillDecember 5, 2018pregnancy, graduate school, reflection, top post Comments

A Day in the Life of an Assistant Professor (October 2018)

I love a good schedule... something about seeing how people plan out their days is so interesting to me (perhaps I need more exciting things to do with my life)!

Academic LifeJillDecember 3, 2018behind the scenes, a day in the lifeComment

A Little Bit of Context

Before I delve into our how of academic life with a toddler, I think it’s important to give you some context about what life looks like for us (so you can decide whether or not our experiences are similar to your situation).

Academic Life, Tenure and Life UpdatesJillDecember 2, 2018behind the scenes, about toddler on the tenure trackComment