Guest Column: Technology and "Super Mom"

This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – basket weaving, rugby – whatever.

This time it is Joy Wald an IT Director at ADT, Having just returned to work with a young baby she talks about how technology is allowing her to manage the most intense work/life balancing phase in a modern woman’s life. Appropriate post - today being Ada Lovelace Day which celebrates women in technology.

“If Vinnie had asked me 5 years ago, I would have written about my love for soccer. Every new city I found myself in during a consulting assignment I would look for an indoor team to play with during the week. A few years from now, who knows it may be some new-fangled “green” hobby such as xeriscaping or hopefully travel!

But with a new baby three months old and another three years old coupled with my husband who owns his own practice as a Chiropractor and me with an intense IT job – my hobby should ideally be sleep. But in fact it is the delicate art of work/life balancing.

I often wonder how my mom managed when she had me. Did her generation do better because of multi-generation family units? Should my generation of mothers just throw our hands up and turn maternity into eternity leave? Or are we actually better off with all the technologies modern mothers have at our disposal?

Vinnie’s request made me catalog all the ways I think technology makes me better off than my mom had it:

In touch anywhere, anytime – I can be on my blackberry anywhere – even Disney – and stay in touch with my team. Just last month I was walking down Mainstreet USA in the Magic Kingdom approving an emergency change control. Fortunately, or unfortunately we are plugged in all the time. I can SMS my husband or nanny quick messages throughout the day. My nanny sends pictures of the kids explaining their activities while I am at the office. My husband and I use calendar invites to synchronize our calendar making sure we have the kids doctor’s appointments, gymnastics, and dance recitals.  You may have heard JetBlue has for a while allowed moms to handle reservations using flex hours from their homes - a different kind of work/life balancing.

Natal Medicine: from fertility treatments to ultrasound scans to monitors for your baby’s heartbeat to epidurals during delivery, you could write books on how science has made pregnancy and delivery so much safer and more comfortable (well, ok  - less uncomfortable). Having said that since much of the world still relies on more natural birthing methods, it is good to see the profession of midwifery continues to blossom and also benefit from technology. 

Digital babysitting – When I was growing up TV was called the “electronic babysitter” (and what we had was fairly basic compared to entire channels today like Disney and Nickelodeon). While we are now much more aware of the risks TV poses to young children, GPS wristbands can now help us track our kids. And through the magic of webcams, we can have far-off grandparents keep an eye on and entertain our kids. No more just the one-week-every-six -months bonding routine. I use Facebook to keep my family updated with the activities of our family by sharing pictures and updating my status with our whereabouts.

Electronic “angels”: I must have access to thousands of them. Questions about baby rashes. Diets. Feed schedules. Swim lesson instructors. Questions I never imagined I would ask. Sites like WebMD and social networks like hightechmomsclub either have the answers or can help get to a coach real quick.

Transport as if designed by a mom: I realize gratitude does not help in this tough auto market, but most moms I know thank Volvo for all the safety innovations they have pioneered from safety cages to anti-whiplash devices. They also thank Chrysler for all the creature comforts they innovated in the minivan (and SUVs) – from back seats that turned into flat beds to Swivel 'n Go (seating with rear-rotating second-row seats and a removable table). Not your grandma’s station wagon!

Food a mom could approve: One lament you hear these days with our hectic schedules and our travels is about the gradual disappearance of the 6 pm family supper. In exchange we now have a unbelievable bounty in food choices for babies and grown-ups:  homemade versus store bought, organic versus processed, all kinds of exotic fruits and ethnic flavors. I utilize many websites for quick and healthy dinner ideas as well as those critical “planned over” meals that I make on Sunday for use during the week. Two areas where technology has really helped – it has made the food supply chain more global and safer (tainted milk from China, you may argue. Stop and think - we can now transport milk from that far way?) and in appliances which have made preparation so much easier. Surely you agree it is progress when an iPhone can cook a meal. Or at least allow me to get the coffee maker going on my drive home.. 

Interactive scrapbooks: From smaller and easier-to-use camcorders, to photo-sharing sites to digital cameras to digital photo frames, I am convinced our kids will have 1000x the memorabilia we did growing up. Good for storage companies like EMC! 

Mishaps: I hate to touch on every parent’s nightmare, but technology has allowed us to set up mechanisms like the AMBER alert And monitoring for all kinds of medical and other alerts. 

Sleep: a new mother’s most common craving! It is good to see newer technologies which are attempting to get us better quality sleep, even if they cannot free up more time for it. Differently, but as effectively the Angelcare SIDS monitor helps many parents sleep better at night.

Dads: No one is more grateful than I to have an active husband in raising a healthy and happy family. My friends and family joke that my husband is “Mr. Mom”. He too has found many avenues from technology to assist in child rearing. He organizes his patient schedule to allow some afternoons free to participate in a local on-line meet up group that share events and activities for our children to attend. He also is considered an expert in all iPhone applications for children under the age of 5! There is nothing like watching your grown husband playing Tinker Bell with your daughter and being able to recite all of the Pixie Hollow fairies by heart! He does have other hobbies and it is good to see things that his peers enjoy from golf to fishing are themselves improving with technology as Vinnie’s other guests in this series are showcasing.

With all these technologies, I am convinced if Hilary Clinton were to write her book today, she would title it “It takes a virtual village”. But I would be lying if I told you I did not have days when I would like to be a throwback to my mom’s days as a young mom"

Comments

[Tina Wu]

Joy,

You've done such a great job capturing how technology makes our life easier to be a better mom. Between my work and my husband's crazy travel schedule, the only thing missing from this list is a good calendaring program that helps you track where everyone is and at least get all those appointments straight.

Tina Wu