Week 12

If I recall correctly, I said that I had 22 weeks of parental leave and my overriding goal was to not waste them. How can you waste parental leave? I guess I didn’t want to get to the end and not know what I’d done with my time. You know how days and weeks can get away from you? You march through life, doing this, that, and the other, and end up discovering that a whole year has gone. Pink Floyd said it best, naturally. So, ignoring the definition of ‘achieved’, let’s see what we actually achieved this last week…

Last Week

The Lake District

We went to the Lake District over the weekend and stayed in a timeshare. I know that’s only a couple of days but honestly, an event like that swallows your whole week. There’s the packing, the washing, the preparing, the drive… and then when you get home you do the whole thing in reverse, and you find a weekend trip can drain you of a whole week.

It’s the first time we’d been in about 4 years and the lakes themselves are magnificent. The scenery is something else and seeing the dramatic hills made me feel a certain pang of nostalgia from when we came here every year. Working remotely means I could live in the Lake District quite happily and every time I visit I wonder if we should.

The drive up was hard, and the baby just won’t sleep properly at the moment and that’s draining in every sense of the word. However, there were some magical moments to compensate: skimming stones and falling over in shallow rivers, running up hills and chasing sheep, having a traditional lunch in a wonderful country pub.

It was hard, but I’m sure we made some wonderful memories that’ll stick with all of us for a long time. Isn’t that just all of parenting boiled down to its essence?

Submitting a Paper

I finally submitted the second paper of my DPhil (probably the second paper - either way, it’s a paper and I’m doing a DPhil) - this time going for a pure psychology journal. I’m fairly proud of the paper and really hope it gets accepted. I got beaten up pretty bad last time, only getting accepted on what was I think my sixth attempt.

I put a lot more work into the proof reading/fixing things part of this paper and I’m hoping that it paid off. The cadence in academia is sometimes glacial so I might not know the fate of this paper before I go back to work. Either way, I’m now having a brief breather before I get started on whatever I end up doing next academically. I think I’m going to get properly started on something

• this parental leave is a gift and if I don’t make a bunch of DPhil progress, I think I’ll regret it later.

Gym Watch

I kept up gymming and am doing myself proud in this respect. I wasn’t healthy over the Lake District weekend but continue to believe in the holistic view of health that includes whisky, burgers and giving yourself a break when things are tough on the childcare front.

Climbing Party

Kids parties continue to be fun - I’ve had a good run of them. I think it’s because the children have become a bit more independent which means I spend less time chasing after them and moderating their behaviour. That means I’ve got a whole bunch more time to spend chatting with parents, drinking coffee, and contemplating things.

Conclusion

No deep insight - just another busy week, inching forwards my DPhil, keeping up with family life and having a mini-holiday. If all my weeks were like that, I’d be in a good place (though fairly tired).