Comments on how having a 2nd, 3rd, .. child affected one's career
"I left the tenure-track job I was in at a research 1 institution and took a job at a liberal arts college, as it was made very clear to me that even with one child, I had selected a path unlikely to yield tenure. No pause in the tenure clock was given to me for either child, and no institutional support. I do like my current job, but am largely here because of the attitude toward having children that I found in my previous position."
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"Having a second child while still pre-tenure has been complicated, but I think it had less negative impact on my career than having my first child before finishing my dissertation."
-- mom of 2, untenured professor
"same"
-- mom of 2
"I went in earlier, and came home earlier. I was less connected full time at this job, so I worked less in the evenings."
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/non-research
"After I had my second child, I had to take on a heavier teaching load in order to pay for daycare for two children. It was totally a catch-22 situation. "
-- mom of 2, Academia - Postdoc
"Again. Thank goodness for the third shift. Thank goodness for the possibility of flex time - at least in the first year or two."
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"The change from 1 child to 2 was not all that significant or at least it was not nearly as disruptive as the change from 0 to 1."
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"Children 2 and 3 are twins for us. [] now that I have tenure and I had twins less than 1 year old [], my opinion was that this job could suck it so that I could take properly care of my children. They are over one year now and we're starting daycare and I'm balancing work and home more, but I'm still so angry about how I had to neglect my first child on the tenure track."
-- mom of 3, tenured professor
"Same as the first - higher child care expenses, more need to earn income to pay the cost, which means it takes longer to finish the dissertation. "
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"Having a baby tenured as opposed to pre-tenure would have been easier except I had an unexpected EXTREMELY complicated and dangerous pregnancy, so my husband had to single-parent our [] year-old []. It was awful, and coming back from that kind of pregnancy was MUCH harder than coming back from my first uncomplicated pregnancy. But we are back bringing in grant funds, churning out articles, [], still bringing in great teaching evals and doing the significantly increased service expected of tenure profs. So, down to 75 hours per week, each. We're lucky we can still work from home a lot, although we both choose to go to campus a bit more now since we stayed away a lot the past few years."
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"I had my children in the early 1980s when publish or perish was not so prevalent. I did not publish as many papers as I might have, but that was not the fault of having the child. The positive effect was the closeness between myself and my husband becuase of sharing the childcare when the nany was not there."
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"He's in high school now, and my career has been quite successful."
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"not much."
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"This child has special needs (autism spectrum) and has always needed more attention. However, we have had good child care, and the success of my job was seen by both me and my husband as a priority. "
-- mom of 2
"I was on a leave of absence for the semester when my child was born and came back to teaching/research after that semester. "
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"I'm sure I would've published from the diss more (becoming more marketable, maybe having a professor-job today) had I not had an infant and toddler when I got my Ph.D."
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/non-research
"Child was born between graduate school and starting work. I probably delayed when I started work by a few weeks, and then went onto parental leave immediately."
-- mom of 4, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"I was much more tired with 2 kids than I'd been with one. "
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"[]I am an academic librarian and my campus culture -- for professional staff at least -- is flexible and family friendly. Major reason I decided to leave the faculty ranks."
-- mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
"Daycare costs were equal to income. It was not worth the money to work, only for sanity and career reasons."
-- mom of 3, tenured professor
"[M]y second child had health problems, too. He caught RSV, so every sniffle turned serious very quickly, and he spent one week in an isolation unit."
-- mom of 2, untenured professor
"Again, more tired at work which sometimes affects productivity."
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"After having this child, I have been more driven to meet professional goals."
-- mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
"this is the same as the last "
-- mom of 3
"Probably ruled out long distance commuting and meant that different childcare was necessary; it made certain kinds of job that were already difficult virtually impossible."
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"Again, it was hard to keep up with research, to travel to give talks or go to conferences, and to keep up with other aspects of job (literature, etc). "
-- mom of 2,
"delayed track to full professor"
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"[] I would say greater sleep deprivation affected my ability to concentrate/focus at work for several months after I went back (# 2 wasn't such a good sleeper)."
-- mom of 2, tenured professor
"Second child had many more illnesses caught from first kid going to preschool. Since you couldn't send the child to daycare with a fever, this really impacted my work life even further. This is more about your survey - the leave weeks questions would better line up as weeks I think - we were allowed 6 weeks on disability pay, 6 weeks vacation. I took off 6 weeks first kid, 9 weeks second. "
-- mom of 2, Industry or nonprofit/R&D
"The company I worked in had a policy in which mothers of children under age 9 could work 30 minutes less a day and get paid full time. I hardly did overtime after going back to work."
-- mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
"I have been working 4 days a week since my children were born. Less time spent at work means less opportunities for making a career. But that is the way it is."
-- mom of 3, Academia - non tenure track
"Really it is the same as having one, just more work at home. But having daycare costs doubling makes me consider working for a for-profit rather than non-profit. My non profit offers more flexibility but reduced pay. I no longer consider tenure-track at a university an option for me though I might have liked the idea in the past."
-- mom of 2
"Baby # 2 came after the decision not to go on the academic job market, so he was more a byproduct of that decision than a causal factor. "
-- mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
"I filled 'other' in occupation - I had my own consulting business. I really don't think that having children affected my career - I made two major changes in my career: going independent and then going to academia. I went late to academia not because of my children but because it was my second career. I feel fine about it. I know I went into this career as a more mature and confident woman. "
-- mom of 3, untenured professor
"I had a 'surprise' singleton just over two years after having twins. Needing to pay for child care for three kids at the same time made it unfeasible for me to return to work full time. Additionally, I was so tired all of the time I don't think I would have survived working, too. However, I think other people have perceived my stay at home as being uncommitted to my career rather than as being committed to my family. I am now ready to look for full time employment, but after 5 years away, I worry about my job prospects. "
-- mom of 3, Not in workforce
"[] Honestly, I worked less the twins' first year, but am back up to regular now. "
-- mom of 3, tenured professor
"I went to work full-time when my daughter turned 2. "
-- mom of 3
see response for child number 1
--mom of 3, R&D, industry or nonprofit
Having two children under 3 was the most stressful time at work and home. I spent many days at work in a foggy state of mind.
--mom of 3, R&D, industry or nonprofit
Not much. By this time, I knew what to expect and planned/delegated accordingly. My second child was a happy and easy baby. I had a much easier time planning and doing my research and teaching.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
ditto
--mom of 2, untenured professor
Had to do an extra year as a PhD student. Graduate student income was dismal compared to the cost of raising two kids. It became extremely difficult not to turn the PhD into a part-time hobby and maintain high level research and get a job.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
See child #1. I opted with both kids to move to a schedule where I left early to pick them up from daycare (a small daycare in a person's home, not a center -- not one of your choices), and then worked after they went to bed. The down side of this schedule is that I ended up working many many more hours than I had when I had worked a traditional schedule. But that was also largely due to forces in that job unrelated to my choice to have children.
--mom of 2, R&D, industry or nonprofit
Too soon to tell - he is only 19 months old. It has not picked up fully yet but I hope it will.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
I am trying to figure that out right now but I am wondering if I can continue. My career has definitely suffered.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Biggest problem was when he got sick. Missed many days of work until we got the nanny.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
The second child didn't have any effort on my job situation.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
Ok, so life was structured with kid #1 to begin with. Daycare meant a limited amount of work time. With kid #2, everything is structured seemingly down to the minute. I drop off, my spouse picks up, I cook dinner on these days, he cooks on the others, I exercise on these days, he gets the others. We both work like crazy during daycare hours. Weekends are gone entirely. They are for the kids and family. For colleagues who do not have kids, this is the hardest thing to explain. They're surprised that I can't work on the weekends!
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
The second child had a huge impact on my professional life - I am constantly behind and missing deadlines. It is definitely true that 1+1 does not equal 2!
--mom of 2, tenured professor
It is hard to say. For reasons that are mostly (but probably not entirely) unrelated to this child, my marriage fell about around the time she was born. I think that having two children in a stable marriage would have been fine with an academic career. However, a drawn-out and difficult divorce was not.
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
No breaks. Time for work doesn't return after just one year. Have to have excellent communication and mutual support from both parents. Number of hours in the office is less, but time gets made up at night. Still chronically sleep deprived. Wouldn't trade it for anything though.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
having two children requires quite a bit of time, energy and definitely affects my focus and ability to start new research projects.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
It was easier for me to adapt to having a second child than when I had my first child because my domestic life was already set up for children and we had a nanny to help. Once I returned to the dissertation I had to make a clear decision to get it done and choose a career, which I did. My son has adapted to my working very easily. I appreciate the fact that I had the flexibility to spend time with him when he was a baby and, now as a full-time academic, that my working hours are flexible enough to allow me to pick him up from school most days and catch up working hours in the evening.
--mom of 2, untenured professor
Having a second child affected my career much more than my first child. I had much less time for work and was physically and mentally exhausted daily.
--mom of 2, untenured professor
See comment for child 1.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Progress in my professional career was slowed down several years after the birth of my second daughter because she had major medical and developmental issues that turned our lives upside down.
--mom of 3, tenured professor
I learnt to use my time in a more effective way. Overall my career has benefit from being a mom.
--mom of 2, postdoc
i now work a lot from home in the evenings but have reduced hours at work
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Same as for my first child
--mom of 2, tenured professor
I was a resident in NYU pathology program. I combined two years' vacation time (8 wks) for the maternal leave. I was lucky to have grandparents to take care of the children.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Having a second child certainly made life more interesting. For me, there were many changes that occurred at this time. We waited to change institutions for our post-doctoral studies until after my second child was born, so we changed jobs, changed cities and had a second child all at the same time. I will not lie, the first year of my second child's life was the hardest of my life. I vividly remember sitting with my husband at the kitchen table and trying to figure out what change we would make to try to get through that year--we considered having one of us move back to our original state to be closer to family who might be able to help out--we were extremely strapped for cash with two children in daycare and two post-doc salaries. We were embarassed to have to ask our parents for money to help pay for daycare, and we ended up moving to a smaller apartment at one point (not a larger one) to save money. Those were very difficult years. In retrospect, I think the decision to change jobs at that time was perhaps a poor one, but the post-doc was a great opportunity at a top notch institution so I didn't want to turn it down. Eventually, the baby got easier, slept more, I got more work done, the kids adjusted to day care and my stress level improved--for sure, my advice to women at this stage is just do what you have to do to get through it. The kids grow up, they adjust, you will adjust and eventually, you will be glad you did both--you just have to remember that it will get better!!!!!
--mom of 2, tenured professor
See previous remarks. Also your responses did not allow for exact time for maternity care. I took 6 weeks each time and used vacation time to supplement (with both children)
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
This one has not been as dramatic effect since I knew what to expect. I still don't work as much but have gotten used to not being perfect at anything.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
This was a larger impact as we went from family of 3 to family of 6 with new twins and a in home au pair or sitter. But it was at a time where the items needed for decision to nominate for tenure promotion were already done.
--mom of 3, tenured professor
same as first
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Now that my husband is staying home, the struggle for care coordination has been eliminated. However, I now feel much more excluded from the family life as they all spend their days together without me.
--mom of 2, postdoc
I was in a tenure-track position (untenured) - much more stress in my life than with first child (born during grad school).
--mom of 3, tenured professor
Again, your questions don't particularly apply. I was off the tenure track and out of academia when I had my second child. I did obtain temporary part-time employment teaching a class when my daughter was one. It was astounding how peripheral I was to the university and the department. I was absolutely marginal and I knew it. I had no claim on anyone's resources, time, or respect.
--mom of 2, Not in workforce
The second kid definitely made it tougher. Now I had two kids to drop off to separate places in the morning. I also nursed my daughter for 14 months (12 for my son), so I spent a lot of time pumping milk and feeding her just and I dropped her off/picked her up. Herding two children out the door in the morning is a lot harder than just one. Also, I now had two kids to pick up by 5:30 instead of just 1, which meant I had to have one picked by 5:00 in order to get the other one by 5:30 so I was leaving work at least a half hour earlier. Also, I now have double the kids that could get sick or have an emergency. We also don't have any family where we currently live and my older son's father lives in another state and rarely ever sees him. So, child number two definitely doubled the work and I feel less focused as I did with child number one. Now I work a lot more at home when the kids are sleeping to make up for all the running around I have to do (one is school age, the other is less than 2 years). I also was requested to come back after only a month of maternity leave (I took six weeks) and this was not enough. I was not covered by FMLA because it was the first year of my postdoc. That was very stressful
--mom of 3, postdoc
The second is exponential! By now, I'm used to knowing what I can and can't get done - there is FAR less opportunity to spend time at events after they're home from school or work on the weekends (unless they're asleep). I would say the leap from 1-2 places me in a more difficult position to do many of the things academics are supposed to do to get tenure. Teaching prep suffers, service suffers (MY service is in our home), and writing . . . what writing?!
--mom of 2, untenured professor
The second child was harder on my career than my first. The main problem has been managing my postdoc mentor's perceptions of how having a child affects my productivity. There is no question that having a child changes the way I work, but having my mentor sit around worrying about how much I am now working does not help. I came back to work full time, but my workday shrunk in length. I made up most of this time at home, but there was a fundamental lack of trust on the part of my mentor, and I had many problems with her not believing that I was actually working at home. Her perception of my work and the reality of my work did not match. This was incredibly hard to overcome because even if I reached a milestone like submitting a manuscript for publication, it was never fast enough or good enough in her eyes. Importantly, before the birth of my child I hadn't had a single problem with my postdoc mentor. After having my baby she started treating me like a child, and I was even told that I was "grounded" until I had a second paper submitted. Now that my daughter is 1 year old, things are improving. From what I can tell, it is all about the face time in keeping my mentor happy and managing her expectations. It has very little to do with the actual product I am generating (manuscripts and grants) and more to do with how much time I am at work and whether she is "seeing" me enough. Thus, as my daughter gets older I am at work a little longer (getting close to an 8 hr. day), and my mentor is happier with me. I am less happy, however, because I know that I am much more productive if I feel like people trust me to manage my work and allow me to be productive in a way that also meets the needs of my family. I know that I am more productive if I can work from home, but I will never convince my mentor of this because she has a fundamental mistrust of my ability to work from home if there is a baby there. Pre-baby, she used to encourage me to work from home, so I'm sure that I'm not imagining these things!!!
--mom of 2, postdoc
It is too early to tell...but it does reduce the time you can dedicate to both teaching and research. The thing to keep in mind in your survey is that while academic parents may take time off during the day to care for young children (thus I checked stay at home), we usually make up for it at night, after the kids go to bed. So the strategies are not as clear-cut as "work part time", stay at home etc Instead it is a balancing act of finding more hours in the day to care for kids AND work.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
So far, I have been able to keep up my level of productivity despite having two small children. My partner takes on much of the responsibility with the children in the evenings so that I can focus on work. During the day, I was mostly responsible for the boys, taking time to write during their naps.
--mom of 2, untenured professor
On the one hand, I have even less time to work. On the other hand, I was already accustomed to working with a small child, as this was our second, so the impact was less the second time around.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
It filled my life with immense joy, and made me extremely tired. Between office/home commitments, the first year of my daughter seemed to me like one long day. Did it impact negatively my career? I don't think so. I am inclined to think the opposite is true.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
My second child similarly took time away from research (not a major focus of my paid job duties).
--mom of 2, tenured professor
It was incredibly challenging to start a new tenure track job with a young child at home. I struggled with nursing between classes and finding adequate daycare for my baby. It was a very stressful time for my professionally.
--mom of 3, untenured professor
By the time I had 2 kids, one in school, I found that my early evenings after dinner were gone. I simply had to accustom myself to the idea that from the time kids were picked up (my job as I left for work early and my husband did drop off) until they went to bed, I was not going to be working. Once I accepted it, I loved those hours each day with dinner, homework, bathtime, storytime, etc.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
U of M had NO maternity leave whatsoever (for <2 years employed) and allowed unpaid leave but with my visa status and just having taken out morgage, there was no choice. I was able to take only 1 week off after birth of my second child
--mom of 2, tenured professor
my boss was planning to fire me but I got private grant to support my research.
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
I worked more hours per day, but fewer days per week. I concentrated my teaching on 3 days a week, and was home with the baby the other 4, though this was full time employment. My husband also altered his full-time schedule to complement mine. We used a nanny three days a week. We worked as a team and all of us benefitted. I never felt that my career had been adversely affected. I am sure I was happier as the result of having children. They are all grown up now, and very fine young men.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
I received a PhD in 1982, and did two postdocs between 1982-1992. I delayed serious applications to faculty position because my husband was not supportive and I was raising two children on my own. Fortunately, when I went on the job market in 1992, I received a few interviews and offers. However at most institutions, I was not competitive even though I had excellent publications. The gap between my PhD and applications for tenure track positions was too long and unconventional.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
See previous answer. But also, there is a big divide between those academic women who have one and those who have two children - some things are harder some are not, but with onlies it seems a little easier to have kid with you more (i.e. I can take one of my children with me while I work at coffeeshop for a bit, but both would be a disaster, or rather, they would take all my attention). More, though, I do think the image of having two children some interpret as being less of a serious academic, even though I don't think it affected my productivity. It did affect, however, my availability for things like late afternoon events & meetings and having to pick up your children, believe it or not, is not always seen as a good reason to miss things. People still expect you to be there.
--mom of 2, untenured professor
In this case, moving cross-country while pregnant with my second son resulted in me not returning to work - multiple factors played into it - not being licensed in my new state, lack of family and known childcare options, and having two children! Yikes. Hoping to get back to work by the time by the time the little one is 2 1/2 :)
--mom of 2, Not in workforce
Both of my children arrived close together, so their effect was really not independent.
--mom of 2, R&D, industry or nonprofit
Time management and job flexibility are crucial for balancing professional and personal expectations and realities.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
My children have not affected my career path. If anything, I am more focused at work so I can spend all my time with them outside regular work hours.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
I am pulled toward two sides one being a mother and other to progress in my career
--mom of 2, postdoc
It took me 7 years to complete my PhD. I could have completed it sooner if I wasn't also a mom.
--mom of 2, postdoc
The birth of my second child coincided with the completion of my postdoctoral fellowship. I found this an easy place to pause my career, so I had planned not to return to work in order to be a stay at home mom. I am considering returning to the work force after my child turns 1 year old.
--mom of 2, Not in workforce
For care, you are missing a very important option- my son came to work with me for the first 8 months. I hired undergrads to watch him in my office (or go for walks) while I taught and worked in lab. This did have one consequence on career: For that time, two faculty started addressing me as "mom" instead of using my name.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Changed from 75% to 60% part time work when child #2 arrived.
--mom of 3, Academia - non tenure track
I was pretty active after this one - since she was the second, I knew that it might not be too hard to take her places, and she went to two meetings with me at 3 -4 months.
--mom of 3, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
As the first child became older, I was able to move my professional career along faster. However, with the birth of the second, I have slowed down again.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
See previous question. Also, with baby #2 integrated work back into my life earlier since my husband was off during the summer (school teacher). But then took longer to go back full time than I had with the first - realized how fast they grow, and also wanted to get to spend more time with my older daughter too!
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
slowed down focused research, publications and reduced flexibility (time and location => no energy for frequent changes...)
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
Again, I became more efficient at work, and participated in fewer "unessential" work events (e.g., off-hours social activities).
--mom of 3, tenured professor
Very difficult juggling demands of child rearing with expectations of academia, especially finding time to write and publish
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
child 1 and child 2 are twins. Hard to tell now (they are 3) what the overall impact has been. One thing I noticed was a drop in collaborative proposals soon after they were born.
--mom of 2, untenured professor
Having two children under 3 while in grad school definitely slowed me down. However, it was not a bad time to go slowly. I got some publications out and did some teaching on a very part-time basis. Again, it made me even more focused in the limited time that I did have to work.
--mom of 3, Academia - non tenure track
I had my 2nd child as an undergrad and it fueled my drive to excel to get funding for grad school.
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
Two children are more of a joy and a blessing than I ever expected. However, working full time in a tenure track/tenured field and remaining competitive in research was nearly impossible.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
I found that having two children increased the mom workload exponentially. But it was still doable.
--mom of 4, tenured professor
By nanny above, I mean we had a babysitter who cared for the children in her home. I was able to bring the baby to the office until he was about 6 months old.
--mom of 3, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
Never been able to move freely to get a tenure track job
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track
Two children are definitely more work than one, and with a husband who was a surgical resident, I had to be the primary caretaker. However he later assumed much more responsibility, allowing me to become a successful academic.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
My 2nd child was very sick during the 1st year, unexpectedly, requiring many trips to the ER, hospitals far away, surgeries, and doctors visits constantly. I TRIED to work from home full time but he required constant attention and did NOT sleep at all at night due to pain meaning I didn't sleep at all. I completely lost the ability to focus, concentrate, process and remember information, and work for extended blocks of time. I nearly didn't finish my Ph.D. and have struggled to get back on course since then, and he is 1.5 yrs old. I love my son DEARLY with all my heart, but he very well may have cost me my career in science.
--mom of 2, postdoc
Having children led to a significant slow-down of my research career and a change of career path. I've moved toward a less demanding career within research... one that requires fewer publications, less grant writing, and less travel. I often feel envious of my female colleagues who chose to pursue more ambitious academic career paths. But I know, realistically, that I would be unhappy in a life spread any thinner between home and work.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
The same as before. My children are twins.
--mom of 2, other occupation (e.g. govt. lab)
I used my maternity leave to go on 2 job interviews. If I hadn't been on maternity leave, i would have had to tell my employer I was leaving the organization, it was a good out. I don't think it really affected my career much.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Having a second child did not decrease my time at work but it did decrease the amount of work i was able to do at home.
--mom of 2, untenured professor
Focus on one project. I did not excercise much and that affect my health.
--mom of 2, R&D, industry or nonprofit
This was my second child, so I was already working a modified scheduled. After the second, and working to finish my PhD, I was exhausted and so scheduled nearly a year off before beginning my postdoc. I highly recommend that approach to others who can manage financially. Also, the Nanny I referred to for both children was shared 50-50 with another grad student and her mate---also a great strategy to reduce costs and share joys and difficulties with another family. FYI, my kids are now happy healthy young adults. My daughter recently graduated from Yale and is working as a paralegal with Planned Parenthood's litigation team in NYC. My son is a junior in college. I'm very happy to have started a family as a PhD student, and they remain a source of deep pride and joy.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
To some extent, because I had tenure once I had my second daughter, my professional career was not as greatly impacted as it was when I gave birth to my first and was untentured; however, I've been less professionally active at conferences and in my efforts at publishing now that I have two young children from whom I am primary caregiver.
--mom of 2, tenured professor
Having the second child while PI of a laboratory significantly affected my ability to take maternity leave. I basically worked from home during the four weeks postpartum and then went back part time for four weeks and full time by 8 weeks.
--mom of 2, untenured professor
as the second child, little effect from having the 1st child but for overall effect again as for 1st child made me more efficient although it was a bit rough going at first especially teaching at night
--mom of 4, untenured professor
At first I was tired. I was working 3 days per week. There was a day when I called my postdoc advisor and said that I did not want to come in today, could I come tomorrow instead. He was always very supportive of me, but he put his foot down this time. It was the right call. It was great having 2 girls 3.5 years apart in age. The first few years in my new faculty position were tough -- good thing I had a lot of energy back then.
--mom of 3, tenured professor
Was not able to travel as easily as before.
--mom of 2, R&D, industry or nonprofit
The second child had a bigger impact on my career than the first, only because my maternity leave year 'off the clock' was ultimately not respected in a promotion decision. Otherwise I have found it to be a binary system--you either have kids or you don't. And if you have kids, there's a second decision point: you either put limits on your time spent working/at work, or you don't. And if you choose to hold the line on your family time, you might very well be choosing to end your career at that college, and you need to be ok with that reality. Honestly, you just need to publish, publish, publish, no matter what they say at the time of your leave--because when you come back, they are going to ask where your productivity was for this time period. I hope this is not true everywhere, but I am at a liberal arts college and it's happening to me. I came back and got out two pubs in the next 6 months, but it still wasn't enough to counter the 6 months in which I hadn't submitted anything. So....be as constructively paranoid as you can be, and get anything they say in writing! And otherwise, go have your family and your life, because no one regrets not working enough on their deathbed.
--mom of 2, Academia - non tenure track