We wrote this piece together to kick-start an optimistic and practical conversation about raising kids while having two professional careers. We consider ourselves CLIPS- Career-Loving Involved ParentS. By "career-loving parents," we are using a phrase from Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In that conveys our dedication to both home and work. By "involved," we mean that we place a high priority on feeling plugged into our children's lives. We capitalize the S to emphasize the plural -- that it is both parents. We believe that our professional and personal choices have mostly worked well for us, and we have learned from when they have not. Our hope is to help those couples (gay or straight, married or not) who are interested in a two-career path with kids.
- Start off on the right path, or get there as soon as possible. With kids at home, it is tempting to let priorities other than interest and culture dictate one's job choice. Although a desire for a certain level of income is an important factor, we are not surprised when parents, usually women, drop out of the work force because the job is unsatisfying and not a workable fit with home life. If you want a CLIPS life, you both need jobs that you like and that are practical, given your home lives.
Many people have helped us have the life we love. We wrote this article as a way of 'paying it forward.'