Parenting and a Career in Coding?

el topher asks: "After 5+ years of being married, my wife and I have been blessed by her becoming pregnant. I've professionally been a programmer for a while now and am now concerned that commercial software development is not a good job for a dad to have. Thinking back on all the software development groups I've been in, it seems most of the coders were not parents, and the coders that were parents seemed to have trouble with things like dealing with unplanned death marches and not being there for their family. So my question to the programmers with kids out there: How does a programming career jive with family life? I'd especially like to hear about parents who have been coding for a while and the situations in this area they've faced."

pfft

[Anonymous Coward]

feel luckey you got a girl to have sex with you.... dont worry about the rest...

It was tough

[Anonymous Coward]

... for the first 3 years:, but then my kid learned vb and started writing windows security patches.

+5 Married

[EnsilZah]

Was i the only one thinking "el topher (Score:5, Married)" when reading this?

Re:Am I Missing Something?

[slickwillie]

I remember when my kids were infants, everyone warned us of the "terrible twos", meaning that when the became two years old they would be hard to manage.

What they didn't mention was that things would only get worse from there.

And now for the crass response...

[mark-t]

You're married... and the fact that you are having a kid proves you are getting laid with some regularity.

So **WHY** are you asking Slashdot?

Re:It was tough

[Anonymous Coward]

3 years old and writing window security patches?

A little old for that isn't he?

Re:As the (15yr old) son of a programmer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nathan, you forgot to vacuum the hallway. Get down here. -His Dad

Re:Try a non-profit

[queequeg1]

I also worked for a large non-profit health care company (as an attorney, not a programmer, but the observations are still applicable) and I'll tell you that the sisters could drive a harder bargain business-wise than many MBAs. There was nothing more relaxed about that work environment compared to a for-profit corporation. Plus, you always had to worry about your increased chances of going to hell if you forgot to put the cover sheets on your memos.

BABY CODER WANTED

[etLux]

The worst problem I have with our new infant is figuring out how to program it.

No matter what I try, it initiates functions apparently at random. (I suspect it may have a faulty timing crystal.)

Worse, it appears to have a both a defective interpreter and a memory leak. Most of what I tell it, it doesn't seem to parse correctly; and what it does parse correctly, it appears to forget almost immediately.

I'm thinking maybe it's time to call in a consultant...

Re:You make your choices.

[Anonymous Coward]

and my daughter is 2.5

Well, one thing's for sure - being a father hasn't taken away any of your geekiness ^_^

Re:It was tough

[DangerSteel]

Lemme guess,

You work in Redmond ???

Re:And now for the crass response...

[hondo77]

You're married... and the fact that you are having a kid proves you are getting laid with some regularity.

Oh geez, you are OBVIOUSLY single!

Re:It was tough

[brer_rabbit]

Sorry, but I'm gunna have to call the cops. Letting your kids learn VB is obvious neglect. You should have beaten the tar out of him when he installed Visual Studio -- even if he wanted to do C++.

I doubt you could beat the tar out of Visual Studio, I don't think Microsoft have picked up the .tar.gz way of doing things.

Wait a sec...

[Anonvmous Coward]

...how did you take a career in software development and become a parent?

Re:It was tough

[Anonymous Coward]

Congratulations. You've prepared your youngster for several awkward and sexless years of highschool.

Re:It was tough

[techsoldaten]

I'm doing my best, but the possibility that a boy may try to touch her someday persists. For my part, aside from educating her in how to write code, I am also investing in dental braces, science camp, violin lessons, tae kwon do school, and tutors in several languages. I plan on making this girl so smart and self-confident she will be 21 before any of that stuff happens.

M

Re:It was tough

[Wakkow]

"You should have beaten the tar out of him"

Don't you mean .cab?

Re:Am I Missing Something?

[mopslik]

I remember when my kids were infants, everyone warned us of the "terrible twos", meaning that when the became two years old they would be hard to manage.

Being a programmer myself, I'll simply count my child's age in binary. That way he'll go straight from 1 to 10, completely bypassing the problem area you're describing.

As a nifty side-effect, he'll also skip those terrible teenage years, and go straight into being a senior citizen before he attends kindergarten.

Re:Am I Missing Something?

[Anonymous Coward]

I said, I'm not working another 20 hour day. Stood my ground and they hired some contracters. Only thing they could do was fire me, and man I need a vacation.

You HAD to be in Clint Eastwood mode when you said that.

"Look punk, I'm not working another 20 hour day. The only thing you can do is fire me, but man, I need a vacation anyway. As a matter of fact I could just blow your head clean off with my .44, the (in the 70's) most powerful handgun in the world but .." oh, I digress.

Anyway, good for you. That took guts.