Kids and Conference Calls Posted on October 16, 2007 Kiki D. Chang (bio) shares his thoughts on balancing fatherhood and a career in academia.

I was curious about that. I wasn’t sure exactly why I was chosen to speak about balancing work and personal life. I personally thought it was because my chair thought I wasn’t spending enough time at work, so I must have been doing something useful outside of work. It may be that.

It may be because I have also two small children and being a male in the department, but also being a child psychiatrist, I think I have some unique perspectives on what it's like to be a father, but also working in an academic career at the same time. I think so far I’ve managed to balance those things to a certain extent, but probably through my discussions with my chair, he’s realized that at times it’s been very difficult. It’s caused me to have a lot more gray hair than before I had children.

At times people are very - a little bit - surprised by the fact that a male would be so interested in going to their son’s soccer game or picking their kids up from school, and so they feel like when it happens, it must be very important and so they don’t question it.

But, in some ways it is more difficult, for the very same reasons is because people don’t expect, again, that this is going to be the primary concern. When people for example say, "Hey, can you do a teleconference at 8:00 in the morning," my time, and they’re usually at work by then. I say, "Well, I can, but I will probably have a two year old hanging all over me and a four year old hanging all over me, because I have morning duties at home and that’s one way I get to spend extra time with them before I leave for work." So, it makes it more difficult to schedule that, but as long as I explain what the reasons are, so far it’s worked out. Most people automatically assume I’m available early morning before work to do these kinds of things because of my gender status I believe.

I have done conference calls with small children hanging literally on my body. And I’ve had to tell them, "When Daddy’s on the phone," or, "When Daddy says, 'I'm on the phone with a doctor,'" then it means it’s an important phone call, versus I'm on the phone with somebody else. They know that it’s work and they know that they’re supposed to be quiet. They don’t always listen, but at least that’s the expectation. They’re becoming accustomed to the fact that sometimes I do do work at home as well too.

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