Growing Pains

To write this article, the authors, members of the International Women in Supramolecular Chemistry (WISC) network surveyed colleagues who care for older children about the challenges of integrating that role with their academic careers. Making, birthing, and parenting babies (and toddlers) is hard work. New parents are often reassured that the simultaneously relentless and rewarding ‘first week’, ‘first month’ and ‘first year’ are the most intense. But when the nappies and bottles (or boobs) are done the demands on working parents don’t stop– they just change. As children leave nurseries and become less physically dependent, the challenges and career impacts are often less visible. We, as part of the Parenting cluster in WISC want to ask ‘Why?’. Parenting a teen takes as much energy as a toddler (albeit at different times of day). Why do we think about the impact of parenting in academia and science less as our children grow up? It can almost feel as though as soon as our babies aren’t babies anymore we should be working as though we don’t have children at all.