Photo: iStockphoto
Because I?m either crazy or a glutton for punishment, I worked through both of my maternity leaves. In 2012, I blogged once a week and returned to my gig at Today?s Parent at the six-month mark. In 2015, I applied for and took a new job when my youngest was just four months old. I started taking calls and answering emails right away, and I physically went back to the office when Juliette was just shy of nine months.
In theory, and in terms of my career trajectory, these decisions felt like the right thing. I?ve always been good at time management, at prioritizing tasks, and I was confident I could handle the required division of my attention. But there?s one thing I hadn?t considered, and it made all the difference: my baby?s cry. I just could not (and still can?t) concentrate at all when they cried, regardless of the reason and the fact that my husband, Blaine, always had the situation well in hand. As it turns out, my lack of focus when my girls shrieked isn?t my fault. A new study out of the University of Toronto, released today, found that ?cognitive conflict? is a natural response when parents hear an infant?s cry. The distress call ?rattles the adult?s executive function,? or the part of the brain that helps you make decisions and power through your to-do list. The study’s participants were asked to identify the colour of a printed word, ignoring the word?s meaning, while listening to two-second recordings of a baby crying or a baby laughing. ...