Off the Clock

OFF THE CLOCK Professors share stories about their children and life at home

Sophia Isely|Staff Writer

Although we see our professors multiple times a week over video chat, do we really know what they are dealing with in their lives? The short (yet true) answer is no. During the brief time that we see them, sometimes their children make a brief appearance or can be heard playing in another room. For many professors who do have children, there is no longer the much-needed separation between work and home life. For those of us who don’t have kids of our own, it can be hard to fathom the amount of stress that comes from taking care of young people full-time, especially while simultaneously navigating this strange new version of life in a pandemic and the pressures of a full-time teaching job.

Getting to spend a (theoretically) unlimited amount of time with your children does have its perks, but it can also be mentally tolling. Dr. Vidal-Torreira, a Spanish professor, has been quarantined with her children for the past eight months. Since she has gone into “momma bear” mode to protect her children’s safety, she decided against taking the alternative route of putting her children in daycare. She openly admitted that this has been painstaking for her mental health, since she feels like she needs to be in multiple places at once. Although she has a live-in sitter who works 18 hours a week, she has no family nearby, and her husband works outside of the home. She gets to spend a lot more quality time with her kids, but they undoubtedly make important aspects of her job more difficult to efficiently execute. For example, she often grades essays while her children play, and she sometimes has to start over to ensure that distractions don’t prevent her from giving student work that attention that it deserves. Dr. Vidal-Torreira has also decided not to return to campus in the spring due to mental health concerns and to protect her family’s safety.

Dr. Zorwick, a professor of Psychology, has also been in quarantine with her two kids. Dr. Zorwick, her husband (who is working from home), and her parents all work together to help take care of the kids. Dr. Zorwick is grateful that her children are healthy and her familial relationships are strong, but that this pandemic is still rough on her mental health. Other than a few hours during the day when she is teaching and a few hours at night when she is grading (from roughly 10 pm to 3 am), Dr. Zorwick is with her kids full-time. This has left her feeling like she has no downtime, as if she is juggling two full time jobs. Her older daughter feels like she is

Photo submitted by Dr. Ty Jaeger

“missing someone she really wants to see,” even though her mom is under the same roof, since Dr. Zorwick’s teaching responsibilities prevent her from giving her children constant attention. One of her daughters also periodically wakes up during the night crying about death—concerned that Dr. Zorwick or her husband will die from the virus. A young child having this concern is sad, but it is a part of our current reality. This spring, Dr. Zorwick will be on sabbatical, so she will not be returning to campus. Although this is not the sabbatical that she had dreamed of, she is glad to have the ability to relish in this extra time with her kids.

We may not see their lives outside of the classroom often, but our professors are struggling through this pandemic just like everyone else. This year has not been easy for any of us, but imagine yourself in the position of many professors here at Hendrix— having to wrangle children for months on end whilst also working the full-time job of aiding students on their academic journeys. Despite a constant fear for the physical and mental health of themselves and their children, they are making an effort to keep your college education intact, whatever that might mean. Even though everything feels distant through a computer screen, taking the time to acknowledge their work and say thanks never hurt— and that goes for professors without kids as well. After all, we all need a little extra love in 2020.