Mrs Licia Ronzulli, Member of European Parliament from Italy with her daughter. (Yes, Mrs Ronzulli is part of Berlusconi’s crew but let’s just rest a moment and gaze at work life balance in action).
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Well no one ever criticised Berlusconi from not supporting work-life balance…
I think this is great in principle, and great in practice when the baby is very small and just sleeps most of the time in the carrier. However, in practice, with a toddler, I am wondering the following: 1) Is this really a optimal environment for toddler (wouldn’t she rather be climbing or coloring something or having someone directly engaging with her?) 2) this only works if you have an extremely well behaved and mild mannered child who doesn’t really talk yet! (my son would be running all over the place causing a ruckus and talking incessantly!). I imagine she has to have a nanny or someone waiting in the wings to take her daughter away if she begins to ‘misbehave’. I put that in quotes because simply acting like a normal toddler can be perceived as misbehaving in a professional environment. I’m all for work life balance, but I think bringing your toddler to work is disruptive for everyone, unless you have a freakishly well behaved child!
My thoughts exactly. Even with a baby, the really sleepy phase only lasted about 3 weeks for us. After that it would have been hellish to try and take them to work. I did take my daughter overseas for a conference when she was 9 weeks old, but I had a nanny there for pretty much all the times I wasn’t breastfeeding. And the night times were nightmarish with her staying awake all night with jetlag.
And toddlers? No way.
Yeah, I’m sorry to say it, but I think that this is what a total lack of any work/life balance looks like.
@ Christina, totally agree. Beyond the baby stage I don’t think this is what I’m looking for.
How awesome is that?!
The exposure to political workings she is giving her daughter is amazing. I suspect sons of male politicians have a lot of behind the scenes exposure which is why you see a lot of father – son politicians. Why not just put it out there and let her see what mama does all day! I love it. Children are part of life and this rigid need to separate children from work is very modern and I believe patriarchal. There are certain jobs that require this separation indeed (dangerous or otherwise) but a great deal of work can be accomplished with children in tow.
“EXACTLY, we’ll said!”
My kids could never do this, although I have on occasion needed to bring them to work with me fortunately I have an office I can close the door on and powerpoints to plug laptops and the like into and kids who will watch a movie over and over again. I have however met an amazing woman who takes her children everywhere with her and they are the most patient, well behaved and lovely children you would ever want to meet. Their mum said that she just had to take them with her to get everything done that needed doing so they got used to it. Since the child in the post has always been there with her mum it is probably pretty normal for her.
Yes Mindy, I agree kids can get used to all kinds of things, even being on the sling while mum is planting rice seedlings in the field. I find the way we separate our worlds quite disturbing (but understand it is required in some areas)… but generally we are so very separate. Older people only hang out with older people, mums with toddlers hang out with mums with toddlers, twenty somethings only hang out with twenty somethings…. no wonder so many don’t know how to communicate and interact with different groups. A bunch of us at playgroup were musing about the diversity within our own friendship groups, and you know what, only two of us had friends who were a lot older or a lot younger than us. I think one reason why people find a normally behaved toddler in the office disruptive is because we’re so segregated that we’re not used to the high-pitched babble of two year olds. Just the other day a dad brought in his two year old to work – it was only for half an hour – and the person next to me was not happy, this is despite the two year old being amazingly well-behaved (in my view).
1) Those photos are just ridiculously adorable, I mean, LOOK at them.
2) I wonder what office culture would look like if this were normative, rather than exceptional. It’s … difficult for me to imagine, but fun to try.
It would look chaotic! If everyone did this it would not work and be disruptive and people would be less productive.
I feel like I would actually be more productive if I were allowed to incorporate my daughter into my work life more. I am forced to take 3 weeks off work over summer when her nursery is closed. If I could take her into work for part of the day here and there over summer then I could do more work!
In the short term, yes, that would be likely. But in the long term?
I guess the question is how often did she have to do this? Occasionally okay, but frequently how workable is it?
I am not saying work life balance is about your children being at work with you all the time or about children having to share your attention with work.. I’m saying flexibility.
Yes. Exactly. I’m no parliament expert but I don’t think this was a daily thing, right? Maybe? I dunno. Even if it was, if it works for the mom to bring a child (well-behaved or not because I’m sure she knows her child well by now and would assess the environment and others’ focus), then this is really a good balance. The work/life balance has plenty of sacrifices and prioritizing obligations so im sure this scenario I’d just the same for me when I did after-school nanny gigs with an infant. Less important job title but I connect with this, as a whole. 🙂
Oh, well I’m all for that. Still sorely lacking in my field.
This week I’m thinking the addition of a few toddlers would elevate the standard of behaviour in our parliaments!
It’s great to see the flexibility.
My kids come to work with me occasionally. They love the stationery cupboard and the giant hole punch (I work in an office) but generally find it very boring. They wish I worked in a pet shop instead. I notice that whenever kids come in to work (not just mine) they are seized upon with joy and delight by everyone. It’s like royalty are visiting.
I still think this lady probably has a freakishly well behaved child! 🙂 Good for her! And yes, the photos are to-die-for cute. Was not denying that! Hey, if it works for some people great, but I do think that if everyone started bringing their kids to work (office environment anyway), productivity would suck. I can barely get dressed in the morning without my 2 1/2 yr old son requesting me to play with him. I can’t even imagine what he would do in my office all day – wait, yes, I can, he would climb everything and pull electric cords, and want to bang my keyboard – fun times.