The biochemistry of career women vs stay-at-home women.

Who likes choices, why can't we pick both?

After a decade of staying at home as the mom, I slowly inched back into the career world by teaching classes.  And loved it - although it was a constant juggling act with finding child care.  Of course the classes that were available were evening classes, and then it became a juggling act of an evening class followed by a first of the morning class.  To move ahead there was only one choice - take the classes offered, the pieces will fall into place.  Although to what cost?  Lining up babysitters to assuming a role that I need to be to class on time and not miss a day of work - a whole class of learning hinged on it.  There is no sick-time in adjunct teaching.  It was often a close exchange time and the cortisol was just getting started.

This 2014 video by Dr. Libby Weaver came out when I was teaching my first chemistry class: organic and biochemistry.  As I was vamping up to learn the subject from a 15 year break of being a chemistry student myself, I had to put in extra effort to be ready to talk about it in front of a room of students.  From the previous year I had taught a few math classes and learned that I loved being in the "teaching to college student role", but whew,  math was easy.  This organic chemistry subject had been long forgotten and I had never even taken biochemistry in college.  While I was learning the subject and building the class I still had a preschooler at home in a non-tv household.  As Dr. Libby explains, women are given extra duties and we must also be perfect in our role on top of that.  There was enough studies out to say less screen time for younger kids - another sacrifice added!  Cortisol, drip, drip.   It was a big juggling act that quarter!  Even though I was just learning the biochemistry for the first time, I was absolutely fascinated by it.  Our bodies are just that miraculous!  Every moment there is a series of reactions ready to take place, all at a drop of an ATP molecule!

Dr. Libby, a biochemist herself, explains how when we take on all these extra duties on top of our normal "cavewomen" duties we are adding cortisol (stress) which affects our menstrual cycle's progesterone/estrogen balance and by the end of our cycle with things out of whack, everyone around us pays too.

In yet, a career needed to be built.  A decade of stay-at-home time meant I had some catching up to do.  That year I continued to teach the organic/biochemistry class along with the general chemistry class.  The following 2 years I would also pick-up an environmental chemistry class, an intro to chemistry for majors class, another environmental science class and a first quarter majors Chemistry class.  All in all that was building 5 different science classes in just over 2 years!

Here is the difference about private colleges and public colleges.  In private colleges the online portion of the class comes all made and it is a matter of showing up and delivering the material.  In public colleges, one is given a blank online classroom, called "Canvas" and the opportunity to build it from scratch....every time a new class is taught.

That growing an online component to class is something I have come to really enjoy.  Students in the first year gave me feedback to what works best to learning material.  It came down to a format that is similar to learning a new language, such as the Pimsleur program  The online component once built gives ample exposure opportunities to students so that once they are truly "assessed" on the material during an in-class 30% of the points in the class grade, they have become quite familiar with the material.

What it has taken to revive up this career, has cost most of my past two years taking vacation time to learn the next classes content.  A dedication that comes from assuming career women duties while still keeping the cave women duties in tact.  A sacrifice: true.  Does it need to be for the future generations?  No, no.  My moment on the soap box for women's rights is below...

We need a better child care system in place.  In Sweden they give women one year of stay at home time once they have a child, but then everyone must return to work afterword's.  Because "every women" must return to work, there is not a big dilemma of whether it makes financial sense for a women to return or wait it out until the kids are in school.  The mental satisfaction of returning back to work has been rewarding enough.  I just hope future generations do not have to feel the sacrifice of returning after too long of a break and knowing that there are only spotty and difficult childcare options available!  Cortisol you are a beautiful molecule, but so is progesterone!   But while we are discussing the beauty of these, oxytocin you are the winner, but ouch, that looks painful as a tattoo!

*As a final note: The Boys and Girls club does provide some great before and after school programs to many schools, our school just does not happen to be one of them.  The school does have after and before school programs.  We have been 2 years on the waitlist so far.  So there are options out there, they are spotty enough that it is a matter of increasing program width rather than creating new ones.

Chemistry - Let it Change the Smell of your Clothes

Whether you are a student of chemistry or a student of life, a deeper knowledge of chemistry has something to offer you.   Central to all the sciences, chemistry has a role in our progress of mankind while we mitigate to a changing climate.  This first look is into a typical consumer goods.

As citizens of our modern society, we are constantly surrounded by natural and man-made chemicals.  What is in your shampoo bottle?  Would you be somewhat surprised that many popular formulas have ingredients that can also be found in a car wash formula, namely Sodium Lauryl Sulfate?   A decade ago, there was no "SLS free" shown on bottles that did not contain this substance.  Now they do.  Why?  Because enough of us became aware of potential harm with hormone imbalances and started selecting formulas that did not contain this chemical. Next thing the name brand corps caught on and made a version of their product that we could all relax around. 

It did not stop there.  Hand Sanitizers had their moment in the spotlight, BPA, phthalates and next to be on the list: dryer sheets!   The difference between the ingredient list on Meyer's Clean Day Dryer sheets and Bounce Sheets are shown below.

Meyer's Clean Day Dryer Sheets:  Di-(Palm Carboxyethyl) Hydroxyethyl Methlammonium Methyl Sulfate, Palm Fatty Acid, Lemon, Fir and Lemon Grass oil and fragrances

Bounce Sheets:  Dipalmethyl Hydroxyethylammoinum Methosulfate, Fatty Acid, Polyester Substrate, Clay and fragrance

Okay, a quick look at those comparisons shows the two products have pretty much the same ingredients, except for the oil and fragrance blends.  Looking at what came up on the news earlier this month from work done at UW on these sheets, the chemicals that are put into these fragrances can be quite frightening!  Dr. Anne Steineman's team found that the artificial fragrances contain carcinogens.  This is not only harmful to the users of these ingredients, but also to the environment as they are volatile and emitted through the dryer vent.

How can a grasp on chemistry help you with this new dryer sheet dilemma you now have in your laundry room?  Having comfort in the complexity in the names above to see that the major ingredients are all the same and the only differences lie in the fragrances.  Solution?  For the most part, just awareness!  Keep your favorite brand, do a further investigation on the fragrances or find a fragrance free version. 

Above all, don't feel guilty if you have been using a product that is now looking like it is a carcinogen.   Use that knowledge to make a few changes and your body will change right along with you.  Look for formulas that contain essential oils. The nice thing about the oils is they have been used for the eons and the vibrational energy they offered to the plants for protection, can now offer you that same level of vibration while giving your clothes a nice smell as well.  The Meyer brand still contains an undeclared "fragrance" blend, but it comes after a number of natural oil blends.  Oh my!   If we all just had time to air out the laundry like our great-grandma Mamacito did it would be so much more simpler...we don't.  Read your ingredient labels!