Snow Day / Bring-Your-Kids-To-Work Day

5:45am the call came: school delay. Ok, we can manage this. Annoying, and a concerted shuffle to re-schedule and re-adjust our calendars, but we’ve become pro’s at handling this — the dual-career couple with school aged kids — we’ve got this down. Within 5 minutes we had re-planned our mornings to have 2-hour-delay under control. We will rock this!

Until…

7:45am the dreaded 2nd call came: actually, school cancelled. Not ok. We freak out, panic, and the 2 adults’ blood pressure instantly blows through the roof, while the 3 kids jump for joy in celebration. Braydon had important business meetings lined up for today. I had a day of classes and meetings on campus. What’s a dual-career couple with school aged kids to do? After 10 years, we are still flailing about, drowning in the absurdity of a work world that was — way back in the day — structured around a stay-at-home-wife. It is 2015. Too bad for us, the J-Ms have no stay-at-home-wife. We are on our own. And it is sink or swim, baby!

It was determined: I would take one for the team today. I couldn’t cancel classes, but I could take the bambinos with me. On one other other day of desperation, I had done this once before. I could do it again. It was declared: this is not just a snow day, it is BRING YOUR KIDS TO WORK DAY (granted, just for us, but still…)

And so it went. I teach two classes this semester — both on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first is Introduction to Sociology — a 240 students class in Packard 101. Off we went~

The topic was “The Sociology of Lehigh,” and C. Wright Mills’ classical sociological conception of “private troubles vs. public issues.” I was using the subject of “why students choose Lehigh” to get students to think through life trajectories, and to compare and contrast seeing the world sociologically vs. non-sociologically. Kyle took notes in that class. Here’s the first page from his notebook. I was impressed! I wonder how many students’ notes from today were this good?!?

Every Tuesday I have a Team Meeting with my five Intro to Soc TAs. Today, because I had the bambinos with me, I sprung for a working lunch at the Faculty Dining Room for all of us. (This is a real treat for students — especially grad students whose eating habits leave a lot to be desired — and, as loyal readers know, this is also a real treat for the bambinos — the Faculty Dining Room is their favorite place on campus to eat.) So, class ended, and off we went.

My TAs got a big kick out of it when Meera went up to the buffet for her lunch, and came excitedly skipping back to the table with this:

Upon my insistence, she saved it for dessert. The TAs got another big kick out of it when she was about to dig in and — looking at her dessert admiringly — pronounced enthusiastically to the whole table, “This is gorgeous!”

After lunch it was straight to to my next class. That one is Race and Ethnicity with 35 students. Owen and Meera couldn’t sustain their attention to sit through that one, so they played in the lounge of the building, right outside the classroom. But Kyle was fully engaged in the class the entire time. We were discussing “what is race?” and there was a lively, contentious discussion full of debate and some pretty high-level thinking. Kyle joined right in, even raising his hand (and making a very good contribution to the conversation) at one point.

It was exhausting for this mama. And it was way-out-of-the-norm for Lehigh (you almost never see kids on campus here, let alone at classes). But it was good, I think, for all involved.

I wouldn’t want to do it very often. But all is well that ends well. And, in the end, it was all pretty well.

(And tonight, I’m treating myself to an extra glass of wine!)

P.S. If you are a current student reading this…. thanks for your cooperation and understanding today! 😉  Love, Prof J