Doesn't that sound scandalous? Sadly, it's not scandalous. But it is pretty darn cool:

I just signed up for free childcare. At a computer science conference, no less.

Yes, of course I'm talking about the Grace Hopper Conference. Continuing their fine tradition of being one of the coolest conferences ever, GHC (as of last year, I think?) now offers childcare. And it's free. Free, available, convenient childcare! Even during the banquet! (Not during the Friday night festivities, I noticed, but other than that, the hours are really good.) What a concept!

This will be my third conference traveling with both Baby Jane and Mr. Jane, and this will be the first time Mr. Jane will be tagging along for the GHC festivities.* And this is the first time I'm feeling pretty relaxed about having Baby Jane at a conference with me. The last two times were somewhat of a nightmare. OK, some of this was because Baby Jane was not yet 3 months old (in both cases....not something I would necessarily recommend), and so there was the whole breastfeeding thing and the sleeping schedule thing (or lack thereof) and the whole new-baby thing to deal with, not to mention sleep deprivation and serious Mommy Brain. But a lot of it was the logistics of dealing with a baby and a spouse and trying to go back and forth between the conference events and family duties. I skipped out on a lot of stuff---most of the lunches, the big dinner (I did make it to the banquet for one of the conferences, but skipped out really early), a lot of the key networking stuff. I mainly went to my talk session and maybe 1-2 other sessions, in each case. There was no childcare available, so Mr. Jane and I did some serious juggling to make it all work (translation: make the kid and spouse invisible to the conference).

This time around, we don't have as many logistical issues---I'm not breastfeeding every 2-3 hours anymore, for instance, which makes a huge difference. But having that childcare really helps. It means that Mr. Jane can go with me *and* get some work done *and* take in some of the conference events. It means that I don't have to leave Baby Jane home alone with Mr. Jane, so he doesn't have to single-parent. (Which he would happily do, and has happily done in the past. But single-parenting is HARD, even for "just a few days".) It means that I can be my career self and my personal self at the same time and in the same place/space, and that I don't have to hide either identity!

It means that Baby Jane can be exposed to an environment that celebrates technical women. And maybe she's too little to understand or remember the experience, but maybe she'll pick up some of the strong, powerful women vibes, by osmosis or something.

Thank you, GHC organizers! Now, if only the rest of the CS conference world would get on the boat with this.....

* Not a totally done deal yet, but looking pretty likely.