With COVID-19 creating additional challenges for staff with young children, a new private Facebook group has been established to provide support for parents and expecting parents at Macquarie.

The group’s founders, Rachel Yuen-Collingridge and Vanessa Tan, explain:

“We set up this informal online network so that Macquarie parents can share tips and their experiences of working in an academic institution with small children.

“We’re aiming to bring members together to communicate the experiences of real parents to the University. From navigating parental or carers leave to explaining career interruptions on grant or promotion applications, we aspire to provide a cross-faculty interpersonal network to get help with the practical issues related to parenting in an academic institution (as well as all the other daily crises of sleep, food, and finding emergency babysitting for that conference or event!).”

You can join the group on Facebook or contact rachel.yuen@mq.edu.au or vanessa.tan@mq.edu.au for more information.