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Being a new dad while working at a startup

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Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#51

Post by guard-of-terra »

jaredhansen wrote: post #48
guard-of-terra wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My daughter woke up every three hours for a bottle" I wonder if it's possible to automate night feeding of small children without waking anybody up. Sounds like a good idea for a startup.

Probably a bad idea - there's a lot more going on in those feedings than just the food: To investigate the debate, Dr. Harlow created inanimate surrogate mothers for the rhesus infants from wire and wood.[5] Each infant became attached to its particular mother, recognizing its unique face and preferring it above all others. Harlow next chose to investigate if the infants had a preference for bare wire mothers or clot…

We'll make our artificial feeder from the best cloth so infants will prefer it to their real mother :)

Seriously, it's not for disappearing mother from their child's life, just back up during the inconvenient nighttime.

Quiet children miss this in the first place because they don't wake up during the night. And they're fine.

Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#53

Post by [deleted] »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #17

I hate this children-centrific notion that modern world puts on us. Makes me be wary of having kids. When I was a kid of 10, my parents had to work a lot to provide for a family so naturally I came from school, ate some food and proceed tinkering with my PC, studyind and reading books. I would certainly not be happier having helicopter mom or dad around. I didn't have that much appetite for communication these days.…

[deleted]

Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#54

Post by lygaret »

usefulcat wrote: post #40
jipiboily wrote: post #2

Hey, I'm the dad from that blog post, feel free to ask questions :)

I don't have a question, but I wanted to say that you're very right to guard your time with your family. For at least the first year of my son's life, I can't count how many times I'd come home from work and I could see a difference in him compared to the day before. Maybe not even something I could quite put my finger on, but I could just tell there was something different about him. They change and learn so quickly…

My six week old daughter recently started to smile at me. Even knowing it's just mirroring my face, and there's not much in the way of consciousness there, I could have died happy...

Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#55

Post by jipiboily »

rayiner wrote: post #42
nkozyra wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it is a lot of industries. It's not all of them, though, which seemed to be the point to which I responded. There is always a tradeoff between reliability and availability when it comes to the 20 year old dev and the 35 year old dev.

It's not all of them, but it's a lot of them. In a way, having a professional job gives you a lot of flexibility. You show up 5 minutes late to your retail a few times, and you're fired.

It can be like that in tech or any industry too though, you can get fired after being late, if you have a schedule.

Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#56

Post by japhyr »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #37
japhyr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's exhausting, but it's really not something you want to automate. Whether through breastfeeding or a bottle, those feedings are pretty important bonding time. When my kid was in this stage I'd stumble in and give him a bottle, but I was always aware that I wouldn't be doing it forever, and someday soon I'd miss holding his little warm body against my chest every night in the darkness. I don't miss the exhaustion,…

It's not something you want to automate every single time, but how about half the most inconvenient nights?

My very non-scientific response: I want me or my wife, or a trusted caregiver involved in every feeding. When you feed your young baby, you're also checking them for all kinds of things - no choking, no vomit that needs to be cleaned up, is their sleep area still safe, etc.

I'm all for automating and using technology to make difficult situations better, but this is really something where you do want human interaction every time.

Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#57

Post by rayiner »

jipiboily wrote: post #55
rayiner wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not all of them, but it's a lot of them. In a way, having a professional job gives you a lot of flexibility. You show up 5 minutes late to your retail a few times, and you're fired.

It can be like that in tech or any industry too though, you can get fired after being late, if you have a schedule.

It's really not comparable, at least not in the places I've worked (both in tech and in law). Retail jobs and the like are very strict with schedules. As in counting minutes. Professional jobs give you a lot more flexibility as long as you get the work done. When you're a professional, employers give you a certain amount of slack because it's expensive to fire and replace you. When you're a low-skill worker, it's all zero-tolerance.

Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#58

Post by guard-of-terra »

japhyr wrote: post #56
guard-of-terra wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not something you want to automate every single time, but how about half the most inconvenient nights?

My very non-scientific response: I want me or my wife, or a trusted caregiver involved in every feeding. When you feed your young baby, you're also checking them for all kinds of things - no choking, no vomit that needs to be cleaned up, is their sleep area still safe, etc. I'm all for automating and using technology to make difficult situations better, but this is really something where you do want human interaction…

"you feed your young baby, you're also checking them for all kinds of things"

Which you won't check if you happen to have a quiet child that doesn't wake up during the night.

Re: Being a new dad while working at a startup

#60

Post by gdubs »

We moved, I started working with a new startup, and we had a baby, all since January. She's four months old now, and I smiled reading this.

I've decided that the single biggest thing to aim for as a new parent is to be flexible. People will tell you all sorts of things, and you'll have all sorts of ideas about how things will go, but in the end being flexible and willing to try new things is key.

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