Professorial parenting: When work and home collide
Professorial parenting will be a new regular feature. It will merge my love of amateur crafting/cartooning with sublimely ridiculous (and ridiculously sublime) scenarios from academe, connecting the home front to campus life. Have a topic I should feature? I’d love to hear it! @hindamandell or via omghinda.com.
Professorial Parenting Scenario No. 1*
The scene:
- Patricia (pink hair)
- enjoys a coffee klatch with —
- Tia (brown/orange/yellow locks)
- Patricia is mother to Steffy
- Steffy is a typical toddler (plastic figure below)
- Patricia sees unprecedented potential in her young child
Patricia: “Steffy rejects the hegemonic constraints of ‘time out.’ That’s why she never actively participates in her own self-discipline when the teachers put her in time-out at school.”
Tia: “Really?”
Patricia: “Certainly! Steffy fights against the emotional aggression of her school’s hierarchical structures. I’m impressed that she already demonstrates social activism at such a young age.”
Tia: “Well, to me it just sounds like Steffy’s not really a good listener.”
Patricia: “Pffft! Steffy’s actually a nuanced listener who exhibits micro sensitivities. I believe it’s important for her to cultivate this complex system of subversive behavior through active struggle against the patriarchy.”
Tia: “So you basically have no control over her whatsoever.”
Patricia: “NONE.”
*Thanks to my own toddler for letting me borrow Steffy and various toddler paraphernalia. Patricia and Tia were needle-felted and are made out of wool.
