Katy Jamshidi
BIO
College biology instructor based in California (USA). Mom-of-two.
KATY JAMSHIDI
"I’m so happy to have both the joys of parenthood and the fulfillment of the career I worked so hard for."
I am a college biology instructor in California, and I have two young kids. Despite the challenges of becoming a mother, I feel fortunate to have been able to stay afloat and even thrive in my career in recent years.
A lot of credit goes to the teamwork that my partner and I share; if I had chosen a different partner who was less involved and less flexible, I don’t think I would be as happy in my life as a working mom.
When our first child was born, I was lucky enough to get 4.5 months of maternity leave, albeit unpaid (many mothers in the US must return to work after only 6-8 weeks leave). To continue to have a pay check during that time, I had worked for free the two previous summers and saved up teaching “load”. My baby was 4 months old when I returned to work.
My department agreed to me working only half-time for that first semester back, so my partner and I each took care of the baby 2.5 days a week. It was so good for our marriage that my partner also experienced the stay-at-home-dad life during those months.
When the parent who was at home had a rough day with the baby, the other parent totally understood and was able to be truly supportive.
How I loved those work days – it was amazing to live my professional life again and speak to adults all day! However, there were many moments when I was up in the middle of the night feeding my infant, and thinking to myself, I have to be ready for lecture 5 hours from now, and all I want to do is sleep!
By the time my partner and I both went back to work full-time, our son was 9 months old, and he started in full-time daycare. Although I was excited to go back full-time, I initially felt guilty sending him to daycare. One thing that comforted me was that his daycare was in the care provider’s home, with only 3 or 4 other children. That setting seemed a lot cosier for our sweet baby than a large daycare center with a lot of different providers and children around.
As an instructor, I have about 25 hours of scheduled student contact per week. Before having kids, I never missed work. If I had a cold, I took medicine and went to work anyway. With a child, of course everything changes. When he suddenly got sick and couldn’t go to daycare, I would have to cancel class and the students would simply miss that material.
Fortunately, my partner worked remotely on a flexible schedule even before the pandemic. So usually on our son’s sick days, I could still go to work and my partner would catch up on his missed work during nap times and in the evenings.
In March 2020, I was 6 months pregnant with our second child when my campus suddenly shut down. Instructors were given one week to plan how to continue the second half of the semester online: not an easy task with biology lab courses! Of course, at the same time, my son’s preschool suddenly closed as well. My husband and I both needed to continue to work full-time, but now we had an energetic two-and-a-half-year-old to keep us company, oh joy!
Our parents are not nearby, but we banded together with my sister who was in the same situation. We formed a “pod” and took care of each other’s kids half of each week so that parents could work without disruptions. So, for 2-3 days each week, we ran a family “daycare center” in our house with 3 kids under age 3.
Those days were exhausting as I neared the end of my pregnancy! But they were also the only times that my partner and I really spent together during those months, because the rest of each week, we had to split the hours of the day so that we could each get enough work hours in. Somehow, we got through the months remaining until summer and my maternity leave.
Ironically, the online teaching I had to do early on in the pandemic helped with the logistics of being a teaching mom. Now, if I have to miss class because one of my kids is sick or the childcare center suddenly closes, I have pre-recorded lectures to post for my students. It's getting easier now: the kids are getting older and we have our strategies in place.
It’s been a crazy journey, but I am so happy to get to have both the joys of parenthood and the fulfillment of the career I worked so hard for.