Photo by Kelly Sikkema (Unsplash)

We recently added a beautiful baby girl to our family, and it’s been a wild ride. Since tech workers are a fairly new phenomenon, I suspect that a majority of tech workers are now currently in the same life stage. As this happens, I suspect that tech companies will change how work is done, now that more and more of the workforce leaves their 20s and moves into their 30s.

Life adjustments

Simplify your life. The financial cost of having a child is well-understood and requires no elaboration, but having a child does have a huge time cost (well spent!). In that I’ve found that eliminating some distractions, like not following consumer tech so much, eliminating excess subscriptions, has allowed me to focus on work, family life, and one other hobby without sacrificing quality.

Maintaining friendships

Do the work to maintain friendships. It’s very common for new parents to slink away into the world and cease to develop friendships. I didn’t want to do that, so I deliberately put in the work to schedule and follow through on meeting and spending time with friends (whether or not they had kids of their own!). I also think that’s why it’s important to still have hobbies, so that you can talk about something that isn’t your kids.

Reading about parenting

It’s more important than ever to load up on science-backed ways to effectively parent your child. There’s an abundance of (sometimes unsolicited) parenting advice out there, so make sure you are only selecting a few trusted sources: people, books, websites. Otherwise, everything will conflict and be very confusing.

Tips and Tricks

  • Invest in a good set of wireless earbuds (I prefer Airpods). There is an non-trivial opportunity to listen to your favorite podcasts while carrying the baby.
  • Learn to not panic when the baby is crying - it’s just the baby’s way of communicating that something is not right. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed.