{"id":8508,"date":"2020-06-05T10:09:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T01:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/?p=8508"},"modified":"2020-06-05T11:43:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T02:43:58","slug":"%e6%97%a5%e5%b8%b8%e3%81%ae%e6%8c%a8%e6%8b%b6%e3%81%8b%e3%82%89%e5%a4%89%e3%81%88%e3%81%a6%e3%81%bf%e3%82%88%e3%81%86%e3%80%80%e4%ba%ba%e9%96%93%e7%a7%91%e5%ad%a6%e5%ad%a6%e8%a1%93%e9%99%a2-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/news\/2020\/06\/05\/8508\/","title":{"rendered":"Series: Tackling Work-Life Balance (21) The Effort to Find \u201cSpare Moments\u201d and \u201cCreate\u201d Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Series: Tackling Work-Life Balance (21)<\/h3>\n

The Effort to Find \u201cSpare Moments\u201d and \u201cCreate\u201d Time<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Pau PITARCH FERNANDEZ,
\nAssociate Professor
\nFaculty of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
\nWaseda University<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u59c9\u59b9\u521d\u5bfe\u9762 First meeting between sisters<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t remember who said this, but a few years ago, I heard someone say the following about parenthood: \u201cBefore children are born, parents generally worry about money. They worry whether they have enough. But if you make some adjustments, you can make money at any time. The truth is, once you become a parent, the thing you don\u2019t have enough of is time. Moreover, no matter how much time you dedicate to your children, you have a lingering feeling of guilt over whether you\u2019re dedicating enough time as a parent.\u201d Since becoming a parent, I feel this rings true.<\/p>\n

I have two daughters, one born in 2016 and the other in 2019. When they were born, I took parental leave for the permitted duration. Even after I returned to work, I tried to allocate as much time as possible to my daughters. My wife works longer hours than I, so during the week I drop off our daughters at daycare and pick them up, and make dinner and put them to bed. These are things that, of course, parents should do, but it\u2019s difficult to balance them with work. Thankfully, because the daycare watches over my daughters until 6 p.m., I\u2019m able to conduct classes, attend meetings, and fulfill my work duties as usual. However, the only time I can dedicate to research or writing is after they go to bed. It has become extremely difficult to attend networking events such as academic conferences and lectures. The time of weekend I formerly spent musing over thoughts is now spent chasing after my energetic daughters at the park.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s a pleasure to spend time with my daughters, and being able to rediscover the world through their eyes is something only a parent can appreciate. However, as a parent and a faculty member, I can\u2019t help but feel a sense a guilt over the notion that I\u2019m outputting half-baked results. I believe that in order to alleviate this feeling and fulfill my responsibilities as a parent and faculty member, the only thing I can do is work to find \u201cspare moments\u201d and \u201ccreate\u201d time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u81ea\u5206\u3067\u4f5c\u3063\u305f\u307b\u3046\u304c\u7f8e\u5473\u3057\u3044 It tastes better when we make it ourselves<\/p><\/div>\n

Each household is different, but I believe that both parents should take at least two to three months of parental leave when they have a child. The period after having a child is the most physicall and mentally challenging for parents. Many know about chronic sleep deprivation, so I won\u2019t touch upon that here. But there are countless other challenges that aren\u2019t as well known. Childbearing and parenting are perceived as \u201cnatural\u201d experiences, and sometimes something being \u201cnatural\u201d is equated with it being \u201ceasy.\u201d\u00a0 But if you experience this for yourself, you\u2019ll quickly realize that \u201cnatural\u201d is not necessarily \u201ceasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u624b\u8a71\u306e\u7d75\u672c\u306b\u8208\u5473\u6d25\u3005 Enthralled by a sign-language picture book<\/p><\/div>\n

For example, childbirth places an unbelievable burden on mothers\u2019 bodies. Difficult childbirths place an even greater burden, but even in the case of a smooth childbirth, it can take several weeks before a mother\u2019s body returns to \u201cnormal.\u201d During the recovery period, mothers need as much support as possible, and husbands and fathers should be at their side. If you think newborns instinctively know how to suck, you\u2019ll find that breastfeeding is actually difficult and can lead to mentally straining experiences.<\/p>\n

In order to overcome the unpredictable burdens and difficulties that come with childbirth and parenting, it\u2019s important that both parents take parental leave. It is most suitable that, during this period when they have many difficulties and discoveries, parents can support each other as a family, and as a couple, and take on challenges together.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Academic background:<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pau Pitarch-Fernandez graduated from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Comparative Literature), obtained his master\u2019s degree at Tokyo University (Language and Information Sciences), and obtained his doctorate from Columbia University (Japanese Literature). He assumed his current post in 2017 after working as an associate professor at Queens College (City of University of New York). At the time of writing, he has been on an 11-month parental leave from April 2019.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u25a0<\/strong>\u00a0Field of Research:<\/strong> Modern Japanese Literature<\/em><\/p>\n

\u25a0\u00a0Family:<\/strong> Four-person family with two daughters<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Series: Tackling Work-Life Balance (21) The Effort to Find \u201cSpare Moments\u201d and \u201cCreate\u201d Time Pau PITARCH FERNA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-8508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-voice-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8508"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8834,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508\/revisions\/8834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/diversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}