A Week in the Life of a Crimson Parent

Brynne Gosch documents the thrills of five days in HBS’s hottest club.

Brynne Gosch, Industry Insights and Satire Editor

I’m a Section F Partner, MSBiotech “Friends and Family” associate, LDSSA member, Harbus Editor, and perhaps most importantly, a Crimson Parent. Last year, I quit my job in infectious disease diagnostics to stay at home with our baby, a dream I am thrilled to be living. It’s also somewhat of a novelty to Alex’s classmates here, and I have more than once gotten the question – “what do your days look like?” For those friends and the rest, may I present: “A Week in the Life of a Crimson Parent.”

Monday

Monday morning starts with a heavy-hitter in the playgroup schedule: story time. One of us takes a turn pushing away crawlers and toddlers to read books to the rambunctious Crimson Kids community. We can usually get through two books until it starts devolving into sprints around the room, older kids begging snacks off any adults they see, etc. Best part of story time is when someone yells “PETE THE CAT! We have Pete the cat at home!” Everyone sings Pete the Cat’s button song.

After the playgroup, I take our little one to the Fine Arts Museum. We drool over the Monets and once again, I obsess over the curator for the Dutch rooms – the most educational, interesting setup of paintings and text panels I’ve seen. The baby loves the James Singer Sargent ceiling murals. The docents love the baby.

Tuesday Today’s a beautiful day for one of my favorite HBS lifestyle experiences: walking to Trader Joe’s. It’s heaven on earth, truly, the way the store is designed and curated for your pleasure. We chat with the associates and usually see a friend or two from campus in the store. This Tuesday, a friend driving by sees us and honks on our walk home –one of many small moments this week that yell “this is our home!”

After naps and school is scooter club, a rip-roaring winter event for the Crimson Parents. In the words of one of our friends, “it’s a lot more stressful than it was before, because now I care about all of these kids. I’m watching all of them, not just mine.” We all shed a tear and then stop to break up a fight. At one point a game I invented goes haywire and I am chased for ten minutes by a crazed fleet of what seems like thirty kids on scooters at fifty miles an hour, turning back to see them gaining on me with pure devious focus in their eyes. We call it off and then everyone navigates the inevitable meltdown of who gets to press the elevator button. Just another day of experiential learning to prepare the Crimson Kids for cutthroat M&A deals in the future!

Wednesday

We rush out the door and barely make it to music time before they finish the welcome song – a glorious tradition where each Crimson Kid (or associated caretaker) gets a chance to announce the child’s name and something they like. Each playgroup makes for a thrilling time: it could be karate, ballet, cross-fit, or interpretive dance depending on the week’s volunteer. (If you have a special talent that you’d like to share with some rowdy four-year-olds and sweet babies, this is your chance!). Our little one takes first steps pushing one of the office chairs and snuggles up to a fellow Crimson Parent. We chat about internships and FIELD plans.

Thursday

Today I am meeting up with one of the other partners the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, collecting Crimson Parents from both on- and offcampus for a kid-free evening of glamor and culture. We swap facts about the famous robberies and choose favorite paintings on each wall while we get to know each other. Bliss, bliss, bliss.

Friday which we traversed sans elevator with babies strapped to us in carriers, complete with gem rooms, a menagerie of taxidermied animals, and of course: maps! Maps that children got to hold all to themselves.

This is the biggie: Field Trip Friday. The whole week leads up to this marathon of Crimson Parenting, an hours-long trek through the city with a gaggle of children, strollers, and tantrums.

• •The Public Garden, a freezing day where several of us ended up pushing two strollers at once to help one another after certain toddlers lost it, and everyone posed with the “Make baby showers, pointing out the dogs on campus, having your three-year-old friends yell your name from across the quad, small group dinners with other parents, running into other families while walking in Cambridge, holiday family parties, hopping over with other parents for Shad classes or “squash and sauna,” RC family parties, welcoming new babies, the community hand-me-downs, and the love from your section and professors. Not only do I love this community, but I am so impressed with these children and their parents in their goodness. week is a mini-look into new milestones: “I like sleeping!” “I like crawling!” “I like CANDY!” Afterward we head to the playground or playroom, depending on the weather. There we have our “Entrepreneurial Manager” class session as various future CEOs negotiate turns on the slide, distribute resources, and deal with setbacks including potty-training failures.

Later in the day, we trek up to Batten Hall for a Dance & Movement special group. The open-ended nature of this in the section for lunch, stroller in tow. One of the things I love about HBS is how the academic and campus experience fosters relationships. I can talk about the cases and guest speakers with Alex’s sectionmates, and any of the shared partner experiences with that crowd. It’s lovely to get together with people for long walks along the Charles or for a visit to Tatte.

This evening is a Crimson Parent spectacular: the monthly Mom’s Night Out! Tonight we load up in rideshares and visit

Truly anything can happen on Field Trip Friday. We often take the T to a Boston location, eliciting stares and comments from strangers on the trains and sidewalks (“what . . . what are you people?”). The Crimson Kids learn pedestrian etiquette, explore new playgrounds, and develop stamina as we walk and walk and walk.

A few Field Trip Friday classics:

• •The Harvard Museum of Natural History,

Way for Ducklings” statue.

• •A stroll through Beacon Hill to visit a special playground with adventure-themed equipment, admiring the famous Halloween decorations along the way, and taking the bus back in shifts because you can only fit so many strollers on a bus.

Other grand moments in the week of a Crimson Parent include visits to class, section

And – as a reminder – Crimson Parents is fully volunteer-run. To all new families or those who want to get more involved, please reach out and join us by emailing crimsonparents@gmail.com.

Brynne Gosch is an MBA RC partner. She has a Master’s in Public Health from University of California - Los Angeles and most recently worked in infectious disease diagnostics.