If you’re a parent and a PhD student, yes, you have to be more organised and, yes, you have to be more focused, but it does provide a healthy balance in a way. When I was pregnant, I couldn’t be too stressed out over the exams, because of my pregnancy. And I couldn’t be too stressed out over the pregnancy because of the exams!
Of course, I can’t stay up until two o’clock in the morning studying. There’s pressure to be networking and to be seen at academic meetings too, but Paris has turned out to be a great place for conferences and I’ve been able to go to London. We also took advantage of the Wharton exchange for two months – as a family.
Combining academia
with a healthy family life
France is a great place to have babies. It’s expected here that women will go back to work, so the childcare culture and all the systems are in place: public crèches, childminders who look after children in their own homes, etc.
We chose to live in a village in the forest, which has everything we need. Felix, our older son, is starting school here in September. It’s good to be in a neutral space – outside the INSEAD bubble – if you have a partner. At INSEAD it’s all about me!
It was also important for us to be immersed in the culture and to learn French, if we were going to be here for five or six years. We’ve created such a community here that when Felix was born he had 20 grandmothers! That’s irreplaceable.
