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#Post#: 18376--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Hmmm Date: November 6, 2018, 2:22 pm
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[quote author=pjeans link=topic=788.msg18363#msg18363
date=1541530890]
I'm curious to know what type of professional conferences are
more welcoming and less welcoming to babies. Some fields, as Dr
F suggests, have made a greater effort to accommodate mothers
(and fathers, but it still falls more on mothers these days).
Some fields can't be strongly characterized as seeking to make
things easier. Some fields are highly male-dominated, where
missed opportunities for mothers is not as major an issue as
other problems.
For me, my field has been moving from somewhat male-dominated
(say, 70/30 when I started my career) to slightly dominated
(maybe 60/40 now). Not like my first field of study where
calling it 90/10 was a stretch. I can imagine different
attitudes in more balanced professions. These are likely factors
in which types of professional conferences would consider the
presence of babies to be acceptable.
For me, I'd still call it a distraction. To people in my field
it wouldn't convey "successful career and life balance" so much
as "unable to successfully manage time and resources." Maybe
attitudes will change in future decades, but that's where we are
now, and that's where I am. We're paid enough in my field to
hire childcare, and we're expected to do so when we interact
with colleagues.
it is very interesting to see everyone's perspective on this,
for sure!
[/quote]
Yeah, I'm curious about the type of conferences that would be
conducive to taking your infant. My conferences are either huge
with sessions in multiple rooms where you are moving from room
to room based on which speaker you want to hear and hoping that
you'll get a seat. Or they are smaller one day or have day
sessions where you have a series of speakers but are expected to
be an active participant in discussions and are seated at round
tables, served a meal and have topic lead discussions with those
at your table. Neither would be conducive to having a carry a
baby around or to expect those at my table to be ok with
interrupting the discussion because I need to leave to feed or
deal with a crying child.
I know is some fields you are required to take a certain amount
of training. But that would normally be a day or 2 of
conferences. It would just seem to me that alternate child care
could be arranged for those 2 days of the child's first 6 months
of life.*
*I know I would not have taken a child older than 6 months to
something that would require them to mostly be quiet and still
for the majority of the day. That would just be cruel.
#Post#: 18385--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Victoria Date: November 6, 2018, 3:30 pm
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[quote author=Jem link=topic=788.msg18364#msg18364
date=1541531433]
[quote author=pjeans link=topic=788.msg18363#msg18363
date=1541530890]
...
For me, I'd still call it a distraction. To people in my field
it wouldn't convey "successful career and life balance" so much
as "unable to successfully manage time and resources." Maybe
attitudes will change in future decades, but that's where we are
now, and that's where I am. We're paid enough in my field to
hire childcare, and we're expected to do so when we interact
with colleagues.
...
[/quote]
100% agreed.
[/quote]
I agree with this but I also don't see attitudes changing any
time soon. Partially because of the
networking/time-and-resource-management factor above, and
partially because babies inevitably make noise, and by the time
they're removed the distraction has already happened. Often
bringing a baby and accessories into an otherwise-quiet
conference is a distraction itself, along with
bouncing/feeding/moving around to keep the baby happy. I just
don't see this being something that at least my field (law) is
willing to accommodate.
#Post#: 18401--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Jem Date: November 6, 2018, 4:05 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Victoria link=topic=788.msg18385#msg18385
date=1541539826]
[quote author=Jem link=topic=788.msg18364#msg18364
date=1541531433]
[quote author=pjeans link=topic=788.msg18363#msg18363
date=1541530890]
...
For me, I'd still call it a distraction. To people in my field
it wouldn't convey "successful career and life balance" so much
as "unable to successfully manage time and resources." Maybe
attitudes will change in future decades, but that's where we are
now, and that's where I am. We're paid enough in my field to
hire childcare, and we're expected to do so when we interact
with colleagues.
...
[/quote]
100% agreed.
[/quote]
I agree with this but I also don't see attitudes changing any
time soon. Partially because of the
networking/time-and-resource-management factor above, and
partially because babies inevitably make noise, and by the time
they're removed the distraction has already happened. Often
bringing a baby and accessories into an otherwise-quiet
conference is a distraction itself, along with
bouncing/feeding/moving around to keep the baby happy. I just
don't see this being something that at least my field (law) is
willing to accommodate.
[/quote]
I agree. I also would view the person who brought the baby as
less professional because one cannot both take care of a baby
and be an active participant in a work event simultaneously.
#Post#: 18408--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: chigger Date: November 6, 2018, 4:39 pm
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This is where I stand. It is really not cool to bring your kids
to work! Speaking as a nursing mother of four. Babies "talk"
witch can be very off-putting to anyone who does not have kids!
#Post#: 18422--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Winterlight Date: November 6, 2018, 6:17 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Dr. F. link=topic=788.msg18279#msg18279
date=1541472361]
I think I have a different experience than most people here. I
attend scientific professional meetings, hosted by the
societies, most summers. They tend to have available child-care
(you reserve a spot, but pay yourself), and many people bring
babies. Most don't bring babies into the sessions, at least that
I've noticed, but they're there, and present at the informal
dinners/picnics that the society hosts.
I've never had a problem with it. I've always thought it rather
nice that we can take a female geneticist seriously, even if
she's holding a baby during the networking conversation. I think
it helps that scientists often marry other scientists, so it's
usually a couple sharing child-care during the conference, so
there's a whole lot of baby-swapping that goes on. Of course,
I've also never been annoyed by a baby crying during a session,
either, so perhaps I've been lucky.
[/quote]
Same here. If people want to bring their kid to a poster session
or whatever, that's pretty informal and easy to step away if the
kid starts to fuss. I don't think they should be in panels since
they can be disruptive to speakers.
#Post#: 18452--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Raintree Date: November 7, 2018, 12:19 am
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OP here. Thanks, I've read all the replies and now can't find
the one I wanted to reply to!!
Regarding the idea that the parent can just step out if the baby
starts making noise, I have two problems with this:
1) At one point is it too much noise? Just about all babies
occasionally call out, "GAHHH!" And the mom has no idea when he
is going to do it. So if he calls out "GAH!" are you going to
take him out of the room? He's already distracted everyone and
is quiet now. And if he waits 20 minutes, then gurgles and yells
"GAHH!" again? Now is it too much noise? I'm guessing not. And
then a coo and a gurgle? I sure wouldn't expect a baby not to do
that during a long presentation, but it remains distracting for
everyone. If he actually does start crying and you leave, the
commotion has already occurred and you have 300 people and the
presenter distracted from what may be topics that require focus
to understand and learn.
2) If you slip out to tend to your crying baby, I guess you
still get full credit for being at the seminar even though you
missed a chunk of it tending to your baby. Professional
organizations in many fields require you to maintain your
certification for a reason: protection of the public that you
are serving. If you go to these things only half engaged and
missing chunks of it due to having to leave to tend a crying
baby, but still get the credit required to maintain your
certification, then perhaps that gives me less faith in the
competency required of people in the profession. I do know that
there are people who only show up for credit anyway, and then
don't really participate even without babies, but I at least
think the organization should require people to at least APPEAR
to be paying attention.
I was also polite to the people with babies, and I smiled during
the break because the baby was looking right at me and WAS cute,
but I still didn't think the baby should have been there.
#Post#: 18468--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Bada Date: November 7, 2018, 6:32 am
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I'm a little surprised at everyone's belief that a few baby
noises will disturb the entire conference, since they're nowhere
near as obnoxious as someone whose phone goes off, which happens
all the time. Or what if an adult has a coughing fit and needs
to leave? It's not a whole lot different. Any professional
speaker isn't going to be the least bit distracted by small
amounts of noise.
I could very easily see bringing a 2 month old in to the
conference to nurse, then keeping him in my arms while he napped
afterwards. Once he's awake and not eating, I think passing him
off to someone else might be good so the parent can really
focus, but I don't think it's required that the little one leave
simply because they need to be walked around and might coo or
something. Have you ever seen how many people are checking
email or playing on their phones during conferences? This high
level of focus every one is imagining is not always present even
if people don't have infants.
I'm really grateful that my job (attorney) is in a specialty
area that loves babies. I was encouraged to being my little one
to our work retreat when he was 6 months old. When I got up to
make my plate for dinner, everyone reached out to hold LO for me
(I put him in his swing so they could eat too). When he got
fussy and wanted out of the swing, everyone reached out to hold
him (I kept him to myself again, lol, he calms best for me!). I
did share him a bit too, but I was appreciative that they let me
balance my working and momming. And yes he was a little fussy at
times, but the speaker carried on without even noticing. If it
had been more than a handful of people I would have stepped out,
but no one seemed bothered so I stayed (it helped that everyone
there was a parent, so they had experience tuning out crying
when they needed to). I chose my specialty because I knew this
was one of the perks. Obviously every field isn't like this, and
Victoria keeps repeating that law generally isn't like this, but
I want to throw my experience out there as something that can
happen in some places. (And I consider it to be a very good
thing!)
I feel like I've also seen elsewhere (maybe on the old site?)
that moms and nursing infants are typically considered a single
social unit, so moms are expected to bring their nursing/tiny
infants to weddings and receptions even if the baby isn't listed
on the invite. It sounds like the general consensus here is that
this doesn't apply to work situations?
#Post#: 18472--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Hmmm Date: November 7, 2018, 8:35 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Bada link=topic=788.msg18468#msg18468
date=1541593946]
I'm a little surprised at everyone's belief that a few baby
noises will disturb the entire conference, since they're nowhere
near as obnoxious as someone whose phone goes off, which happens
all the time. Or what if an adult has a coughing fit and needs
to leave? It's not a whole lot different. Any professional
speaker isn't going to be the least bit distracted by small
amounts of noise.
I could very easily see bringing a 2 month old in to the
conference to nurse, then keeping him in my arms while he napped
afterwards. Once he's awake and not eating, I think passing him
off to someone else might be good so the parent can really
focus, but I don't think it's required that the little one leave
simply because they need to be walked around and might coo or
something. Have you ever seen how many people are checking
email or playing on their phones during conferences? This high
level of focus every one is imagining is not always present even
if people don't have infants.
I'm really grateful that my job (attorney) is in a specialty
area that loves babies. I was encouraged to being my little one
to our work retreat when he was 6 months old. When I got up to
make my plate for dinner, everyone reached out to hold LO for me
(I put him in his swing so they could eat too). When he got
fussy and wanted out of the swing, everyone reached out to hold
him (I kept him to myself again, lol, he calms best for me!). I
did share him a bit too, but I was appreciative that they let me
balance my working and momming. And yes he was a little fussy at
times, but the speaker carried on without even noticing. If it
had been more than a handful of people I would have stepped out,
but no one seemed bothered so I stayed (it helped that everyone
there was a parent, so they had experience tuning out crying
when they needed to). I chose my specialty because I knew this
was one of the perks. Obviously every field isn't like this, and
Victoria keeps repeating that law generally isn't like this, but
I want to throw my experience out there as something that can
happen in some places. (And I consider it to be a very good
thing!)
I feel like I've also seen elsewhere (maybe on the old site?)
that moms and nursing infants are typically considered a single
social unit, so moms are expected to bring their nursing/tiny
infants to weddings and receptions even if the baby isn't listed
on the invite. It sounds like the general consensus here is that
this doesn't apply to work situations?
[/quote]
A social unit is a social unit. My husband and I are a social
unit. He would not be expected or welcome to a professional
engagement I'm invited to unless he was explicitly invited to a
social portion of the event.
I think it's wonderful that your company invited your child to
their retreat.
I had wonderfully supportive employers through out the 90's. I
asked for and received accommodations that my other female (and
some male) co-workers thought wouldn't be granted or would
impact my career negatively. However, when I explained my need
to integrate and not balance work and home, most understood and
agreed to letting me set a schedule that was optimal for all. So
sometimes that meant I took a conference call while sitting by a
pool during my kid's swim team practices or setting up a play
area in my office for my kids to hang out after a summer camp.
And sometimes it meant that I came home from work early, helped
with homework, cooked dinner, ate with the family and then
disappeared into my office for the rest of the night while my
husband got the kids down for the night.
Maybe my kids were just really active babies but I can not
imagine expecting one of them to be content for 8 hours either
being held in my arms or in a carrier. They were very much the
down on the playmate type kids. I think I was also pretty
concerned about noise volumes causing damage and at most
conferences I attend, the crowd noises are defining and then if
there is any "marketing" type hype, those presentations are
really loud.
I just don't see the value. The parent is not able to fully
immerse themselves in conference and much of their "networking"
will be about "ah the baby". The baby gets a crappy day in my
opinion. I agree that other conference attendees are already
rude by having their cell phones go off or getting up and down.
But that doesn't seem to be a good reason to introduce another
type of distraction just because you can.
#Post#: 18477--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: Victoria Date: November 7, 2018, 10:17 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Bada link=topic=788.msg18468#msg18468
date=1541593946]
I'm a little surprised at everyone's belief that a few baby
noises will disturb the entire conference, since they're nowhere
near as obnoxious as someone whose phone goes off, which happens
all the time. Or what if an adult has a coughing fit and needs
to leave? It's not a whole lot different.
...
I feel like I've also seen elsewhere (maybe on the old site?)
that moms and nursing infants are typically considered a single
social unit, so moms are expected to bring their nursing/tiny
infants to weddings and receptions even if the baby isn't listed
on the invite. It sounds like the general consensus here is that
this doesn't apply to work situations?
[/quote]
I wouldn't walk into a conference with my phone on and gamble
that it won't go off, and I wouldn't go into a conference with
bronchitis and no medication and hope that I won't cough for an
hour. Similarly I wouldn't bring a baby and try to be as
still/quiet as possible and just hope my baby won't make noise,
which is an even riskier gamble.
As for the social unit issue, I think that we have to draw the
lines pretty clearly. I wouldn't say that I'd never bring a baby
to a work thing, but I wouldn't bring a baby to certain work or
professional gatherings like a conference.
#Post#: 18479--------------------------------------------------
Re: Babies at conferences?
By: bopper Date: November 7, 2018, 10:37 am
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I think it should be like in church...a few coos and gurgles are
fine, but if a baby cries they should be taken out.
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