Caught in a trap

My brother recently brought scatterblog, and this specific entry to my attention.    It’s pretty interesting, and really shows how we’re all a little stuck, as long as we pursue academic tenure track careers, in this constant cycle of work.  Here we are, fighting for a change in culture that recognizes the need for work-life balance, and all the while feeling really guilty when we take a whole weekend, or even, imagine, taking a few DAYS OFF.   I fight this all the time.  It’s the end of the school year at my institution, and I spent 10 hours on Friday grading  all the exams for the class I TA’d.  So, now I am done.  With that.  But of course that just means I have all this wonderful time to take care of my research.

The guilt is much worse, I think, for mothers and fathers.  Because now they have even more hats they are trying to wear, and we all want to excel at everything.  It’s never just enough.

Sometimes I wish I could just BE.  Doesn’t that sound nice?

~ by academicwomen on May 4, 2008.