I'm reading The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter, by Katherine Ellison. One of the later chapters deals with the transferable skills developed in parenting. She mentions time management, dependability, leadership, care-giving, and conflict resolution. The skills she mentions are applicable to most jobs. I think there are also some skills specifically applicable to management positions. Two in particular come to mind:
1. The ability to get things done despite constant interruptions.
Any mother and any manager can tell you that constant interruptions are a hallmark of their jobs. To be successful at either, you have to learn how to get things done- even complex things- while subject to interruption at any time. I don't think this is a skill that can really be taught. Different people will have different methods based on their other strengths and weaknesses.
2. The ability to make decisions with incomplete information.
Both mothers and managers often have to make important decisions based on the information at hand, whether or not that information is complete. In either job, insisting on a complete analysis of every decision would be disastrous. Sometimes the missing information is just not available. Sometimes the time it would take to do the full analysis would result in an undesirable outcome, even if the eventual decision reached was the "right" one. However, both mother and managers also have to know when to say that the information is too incomplete to allow a decision, and take more time to go search for the necessary information. In my experience, the confidence in your ability to recognize which situations can be handled with a decision based on incomplete information comes from practice. I've gotten better at this with more time managing and with more time mommying.
I'm sure there are more transferable skills. Feel free to add some in the comments. I'll keep thinking about this topic and will probably revisit it in the future.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Six Quirky Things
Caramama tagged me to list six quirky things about myself. I'm a little tardy with this post- Pumpkin was sick this weekend, and I started a new job on Monday, so I haven't had much time to post.
Here are the rules:
1) Link to the person that tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least 3 people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6) Let the fun begin!
I have to confess that I don't think I can satisfy rule #4- I think every other Mommyblogger I read has already been tagged. Clearly, I need to read more blogs. (My husband might disagree.)
But here are the six quirky things about me:
1. I park my car in a "car park".
I'm American. I should park my car in a parking lot. I blame my Kiwi hubby. He's suffered a similar fate. He should take the rubbish out, but actually takes the garbage out.
2. One of the four things I can say in Swedish is "Can I have an ashtray?"
I don't smoke.
(The other three things are: Thanks very much, I don't speak Swedish, and I don't understand.)
3. I live by the ocean, but I don't like fish.
If pressed, I will eat some salmon. But I won't like it.
(Given the importance of omega-3 fatty acids, I now take fish oil pills.)
4. I am a big rugby fan. This is also due to Hubby. When he first moved to America, he didn't have anyone to watch rugby with, so I started watching. Before long, I was hooked. Now we go to the USA Sevens every year (yes, we took Pumpkin this year and I went while quite pregnant last year) and pay $15/month for the channel that shows rugby on TV. And we timed our big trip to have us in Hong Kong for that sevens tournament.
5. I like to drink in high places.
Hubby and I have a tradition of finding the highest place in every city in which to have a drink. By far the coolest was the bar in Bangkok, which was Distil, an outdoor bar on the 64th floor of the State Tower in Bangkok. The bar on the 63rd floor looked even cooler:
6. I don't like to go to the movies.
I rarely want to go to the movies. The exceptions are Jane Austen movies and some Sci-Fi movies. This is a puzzle to my family, particularly my father and sister who are bona fide movie buffs.
Now, to prove that I have no one to tag, here are links to the similar posts by all the Mommybloggers I read:
Here are the rules:
1) Link to the person that tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least 3 people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
5) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6) Let the fun begin!
I have to confess that I don't think I can satisfy rule #4- I think every other Mommyblogger I read has already been tagged. Clearly, I need to read more blogs. (My husband might disagree.)
But here are the six quirky things about me:
1. I park my car in a "car park".
I'm American. I should park my car in a parking lot. I blame my Kiwi hubby. He's suffered a similar fate. He should take the rubbish out, but actually takes the garbage out.
2. One of the four things I can say in Swedish is "Can I have an ashtray?"
I don't smoke.
(The other three things are: Thanks very much, I don't speak Swedish, and I don't understand.)
3. I live by the ocean, but I don't like fish.
If pressed, I will eat some salmon. But I won't like it.
(Given the importance of omega-3 fatty acids, I now take fish oil pills.)
4. I am a big rugby fan. This is also due to Hubby. When he first moved to America, he didn't have anyone to watch rugby with, so I started watching. Before long, I was hooked. Now we go to the USA Sevens every year (yes, we took Pumpkin this year and I went while quite pregnant last year) and pay $15/month for the channel that shows rugby on TV. And we timed our big trip to have us in Hong Kong for that sevens tournament.
5. I like to drink in high places.
Hubby and I have a tradition of finding the highest place in every city in which to have a drink. By far the coolest was the bar in Bangkok, which was Distil, an outdoor bar on the 64th floor of the State Tower in Bangkok. The bar on the 63rd floor looked even cooler:
6. I don't like to go to the movies.
I rarely want to go to the movies. The exceptions are Jane Austen movies and some Sci-Fi movies. This is a puzzle to my family, particularly my father and sister who are bona fide movie buffs.
Now, to prove that I have no one to tag, here are links to the similar posts by all the Mommybloggers I read:
Monday, February 25, 2008
Mind the Gap
I started a new job today. I left my old job last Thursday. My former employer has a policy of canceling insurance coverage at 11:59 p.m. on the last day of employment. My new employer has a policy of starting insurance on the first day of the month.
My options to cover me and Pumpkin during this time are:
1. COBRA (which I'd have to pay for the entire month of February, even though my former employer already paid for my insurance through Feb. 21)
2. Add us temporarily to Hubby's plan
3. Do nothing
We're actually going with a mix of 1 and 3, because you have 60 days in which to get your COBRA paperwork in and it is then retroactive to the day after I left my former employer. So, we will pay any costs during my gap in coverage out of pocket, and if it looks like they are going to be more than the cost of COBRA, we'll go ahead and submit the COBRA paperwork. This maximizes the chance that we will have to do minimal paperwork. I liked option #2, but Hubby talked me out of it with tales of his dysfunctional Human Resources unit, and convinced me that they would be unlikely to get us added to his plan before March 1.
Of course, our chosen method only works because we have the means to cover most costs out of pocket and the credit cards to ensure that we would not be denied treatment based on a presumed inability to pay for the costs. I know that many are not so lucky.
This is a crazy system. We have a term for this sort of thing in the database design world- it is a patchwork quilt design. A system was designed at one point that made sense given the requirements known at that time. Then new requirements are discovered and the system is patched. Repeatedly. At some point, you really just need to toss out the system and redesign from scratch. I really think we are at that point.
My options to cover me and Pumpkin during this time are:
1. COBRA (which I'd have to pay for the entire month of February, even though my former employer already paid for my insurance through Feb. 21)
2. Add us temporarily to Hubby's plan
3. Do nothing
We're actually going with a mix of 1 and 3, because you have 60 days in which to get your COBRA paperwork in and it is then retroactive to the day after I left my former employer. So, we will pay any costs during my gap in coverage out of pocket, and if it looks like they are going to be more than the cost of COBRA, we'll go ahead and submit the COBRA paperwork. This maximizes the chance that we will have to do minimal paperwork. I liked option #2, but Hubby talked me out of it with tales of his dysfunctional Human Resources unit, and convinced me that they would be unlikely to get us added to his plan before March 1.
Of course, our chosen method only works because we have the means to cover most costs out of pocket and the credit cards to ensure that we would not be denied treatment based on a presumed inability to pay for the costs. I know that many are not so lucky.
This is a crazy system. We have a term for this sort of thing in the database design world- it is a patchwork quilt design. A system was designed at one point that made sense given the requirements known at that time. Then new requirements are discovered and the system is patched. Repeatedly. At some point, you really just need to toss out the system and redesign from scratch. I really think we are at that point.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Risk Adversity
I often think about how so much of parenting involves making cost-benefit/risk analysis type decisions with woefully incomplete data. Given the incompleteness of the data and the obvious uniqueness of each child, I try to avoid judging other parents' decisions. After all, we are all just trying to make the decisions that we think are best for our children, and who am I to judge someone who comes down in a different place on any particular cost-benefit spectrum?
However, there is some news in my home town that is making this difficult: we are in the midst of a measles outbreak here in San Diego. At last report, we were up to 12 confirmed cases, all children, none of whom had been vaccinated. Some of these kids were not vaccinated because their parents have chosen not to have them vaccinated, either for religious reasons or because they believe that the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine is associated with autism. I do not have any desire to retype all of the evidence that contradicts that theory. You can read this short summary from the CDC if you have somehow managed to miss this information. And if you don't believe the CDC, then there is nothing I can write that will sway you, anyway. (I am specifically not talking about people who choose to tweak the vaccination schedule or ask for three separate shots rather than the MMR- I may or may not come to the same decision given their family history, etc., but their kids end up vaccinated and it is no concern of mine if they do it with more shots over a longer period of time.)
The measles outbreak occurring here in San Diego began in a 7 year old child who contracted measles during a family trip to Switzerland. The child's parents had decided not to give him or her the MMR vaccine. The disease quickly spread to the child's siblings, and then to other unvaccinated children at a charter school (which, incidentally, has a relatively high percentage of unvaccinated children, probably because it is a bit of an "alternative" school). So far, I'm thinking "too bad for the kids that their parents didn't get them vaccinated". But then it started turning up in babies. The MMR vaccine is not usually given until a child reaches 12 months. So the 10 and 11 month old babies who have caught measles were not victims of their parents' decisions. They were victims of the decisions made by other children's parents and some bad luck. At least one baby has had to be hospitalized. This news article includes a graphic detailing the course of the outbreak. For those of you who don't live in San Diego, I'll just mention that the neighborhoods affected are quite wealthy areas of town. Whatever the reason these parents have for deciding not to give their kids the MMR vaccine, it has nothing to do with money or lack of access to information.
At this point, I think it is worth noting that according to the news report I cited above, three children died during the last measles outbreak in San Diego. Yes, died. I think most of us here in the developed world have forgotten how catastrophic these childhood diseases can be.
So I'm warily keeping an eye on the reports of an outbreak that is moving in circles disconcertingly close to my own, knowing that there really isn't much I can do to protect Pumpkin from the consequences of decisions made by other parents. Decisions that I think are just plain wrong. And, because I am a scientist, I can't help but wonder what has happened to make such privileged, educated people distrust the scientific evidence, which at this point is quite strong.
I do not advocate blind acceptance of every recommendation from scientific and medical experts. I have recently been reminded about the controversy over estrogen-mimicking compounds in plastic, and have printed off some studies that I plan to review soon. However, there is a world of difference between making the decision to use a more expensive baby bottle because of possibly unfounded concerns about a chemical in the cheaper ones and making the decision not to vaccinate your child because of really rather disproven concerns about autism. My decision on the baby bottles has no impact on your child. Your decision on the vaccine can have a profound impact on my child.
I am also very much aware of the limitations of any "research" I might do into these concerns. I put "research" in quotes, because to really research the baby bottle issue, I would need to read the literally hundreds of peer-reviewed research articles on the potential impacts of bisphenol A, carefully considering the limitations of each study. I might have questions about some studies that were not answered in the articles reporting them, so I might want to write to the authors and request the original data so that I could run my own analyses. This would take me weeks if not months of concentrated effort.
Of course, I do not have time to do this. I have a job and a baby who needs me to take care of her. The best I can hope to do in the time I have is to find the most recent review-type articles in PubMed and read them to see if I agree with the recommendations of the true experts. Luckily for me, there are scientists whose job it is to do the thorough research, both on the bisphenol A issue and on the autism issue. In fact, I pay them to do just this sort of research for me. These are the good folks at the CDC and the EPA. The only reason I feel the need to do a cursory review on the bisphenol A issue is that the current president's administration has a track record of having the political appointees censor the scientists.
And when I do that review of the information on bisphenol A? I will be using information from peer reviewed scientific articles. The peer review system isn't perfect, but it sure beats the internet popularity contest or Hollywood celebrity endorsement methods of information selection.
I suspect that if people would do the same thing when they research the MMR vaccine and autism, I wouldn't be worrying about whether Pumpkin will catch measles.
However, there is some news in my home town that is making this difficult: we are in the midst of a measles outbreak here in San Diego. At last report, we were up to 12 confirmed cases, all children, none of whom had been vaccinated. Some of these kids were not vaccinated because their parents have chosen not to have them vaccinated, either for religious reasons or because they believe that the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine is associated with autism. I do not have any desire to retype all of the evidence that contradicts that theory. You can read this short summary from the CDC if you have somehow managed to miss this information. And if you don't believe the CDC, then there is nothing I can write that will sway you, anyway. (I am specifically not talking about people who choose to tweak the vaccination schedule or ask for three separate shots rather than the MMR- I may or may not come to the same decision given their family history, etc., but their kids end up vaccinated and it is no concern of mine if they do it with more shots over a longer period of time.)
The measles outbreak occurring here in San Diego began in a 7 year old child who contracted measles during a family trip to Switzerland. The child's parents had decided not to give him or her the MMR vaccine. The disease quickly spread to the child's siblings, and then to other unvaccinated children at a charter school (which, incidentally, has a relatively high percentage of unvaccinated children, probably because it is a bit of an "alternative" school). So far, I'm thinking "too bad for the kids that their parents didn't get them vaccinated". But then it started turning up in babies. The MMR vaccine is not usually given until a child reaches 12 months. So the 10 and 11 month old babies who have caught measles were not victims of their parents' decisions. They were victims of the decisions made by other children's parents and some bad luck. At least one baby has had to be hospitalized. This news article includes a graphic detailing the course of the outbreak. For those of you who don't live in San Diego, I'll just mention that the neighborhoods affected are quite wealthy areas of town. Whatever the reason these parents have for deciding not to give their kids the MMR vaccine, it has nothing to do with money or lack of access to information.
At this point, I think it is worth noting that according to the news report I cited above, three children died during the last measles outbreak in San Diego. Yes, died. I think most of us here in the developed world have forgotten how catastrophic these childhood diseases can be.
So I'm warily keeping an eye on the reports of an outbreak that is moving in circles disconcertingly close to my own, knowing that there really isn't much I can do to protect Pumpkin from the consequences of decisions made by other parents. Decisions that I think are just plain wrong. And, because I am a scientist, I can't help but wonder what has happened to make such privileged, educated people distrust the scientific evidence, which at this point is quite strong.
I do not advocate blind acceptance of every recommendation from scientific and medical experts. I have recently been reminded about the controversy over estrogen-mimicking compounds in plastic, and have printed off some studies that I plan to review soon. However, there is a world of difference between making the decision to use a more expensive baby bottle because of possibly unfounded concerns about a chemical in the cheaper ones and making the decision not to vaccinate your child because of really rather disproven concerns about autism. My decision on the baby bottles has no impact on your child. Your decision on the vaccine can have a profound impact on my child.
I am also very much aware of the limitations of any "research" I might do into these concerns. I put "research" in quotes, because to really research the baby bottle issue, I would need to read the literally hundreds of peer-reviewed research articles on the potential impacts of bisphenol A, carefully considering the limitations of each study. I might have questions about some studies that were not answered in the articles reporting them, so I might want to write to the authors and request the original data so that I could run my own analyses. This would take me weeks if not months of concentrated effort.
Of course, I do not have time to do this. I have a job and a baby who needs me to take care of her. The best I can hope to do in the time I have is to find the most recent review-type articles in PubMed and read them to see if I agree with the recommendations of the true experts. Luckily for me, there are scientists whose job it is to do the thorough research, both on the bisphenol A issue and on the autism issue. In fact, I pay them to do just this sort of research for me. These are the good folks at the CDC and the EPA. The only reason I feel the need to do a cursory review on the bisphenol A issue is that the current president's administration has a track record of having the political appointees censor the scientists.
And when I do that review of the information on bisphenol A? I will be using information from peer reviewed scientific articles. The peer review system isn't perfect, but it sure beats the internet popularity contest or Hollywood celebrity endorsement methods of information selection.
I suspect that if people would do the same thing when they research the MMR vaccine and autism, I wouldn't be worrying about whether Pumpkin will catch measles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)