Be flexible in your work schedule if you can- there are a lot of hard parts in running a startup, but the flexible schedule is a perk when you have a young child. My co-founder and I are very transparent with each other and figured out a schedule that works for both Upfront and our families.
As a part of my series about “How extremely busy executives make time to be great parents” I had the pleasure to interview Dana Levin-Robinson.
Dana is the CEO and Co-Founder of Upfront, the first site dedicated to pricing transparency for the parenting world. She is the former Chief of Staff at VirtualHealth, a growth-stage health tech company that was named Deloitte’s 39th Fastest Growing Company, and spent years in various advertising agencies in NYC. Dana graduated with her MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and BS from Boston University and lives in NYC with her husband and baby son.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us your “childhood backstory”?
I was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israeli until I was 10 when our family moved to Warsaw, Poland. It was a really difficult transition: I’d never spoken English before and going from a large public school to a small international school was a big culture shock. Over time, I grew to appreciate how lucky I was to be exposed to so many cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives from such a young age.
Can you share the story about what brought you to this specific point in your career?
As a mom of a one-year-old, I’m surrounded by new moms and that means I’m surrounded by the pain point of finding daycares near me or the price of a daycare. For parents to make the best choices for their families easily, they need to know hard costs, and we just didn’t see anyone in the market addressing this issue.
Can you tell us a bit more about what your day to day schedule looks like?
My husband and I both have busy careers and make sure to divide and conquer as much as we can. We alternate mornings with our very active one year old then work from home until the evening. My schedule is different every day- sometimes I have six back-to-back meetings and other days I spend doing QA on the child care rates in our database. We then have some time as a family of three giving our son a bath and dinner and put him down for the night.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the core of our discussion. This is probably intuitive to many, but it would be beneficial to spell it out. Based on your experience or research, can you flesh out why not spending time with your children can be detrimental to their development?
Children of course need a supportive and loving home, and to us that means spending plenty of time with our son without distractions like our phones. We try to avoid situations where we’re 50% working and 50% watching him because we never do great work and our son deserves quality time with each of his parents.
On the flip side, can you give a few reasons or examples about why it is so important to make time to spend with your children?
While I love spending time with our son, I also have a ton of other responsibilities, so our household approach is often divide and conquer. If I need to work during the weekend, my husband will take our son for a walk or playdate. We were fully formed individuals before becoming parents so giving up our social life (not that anyone had much of a social life this year!) or hobbies is something that needs to be consciously carved out and prioritized.
According to this study cited in the Washington Post, the quality of time spent with children is more important than the quantity of time. Can you give a 3–5 stories or examples from your own life about what you do to spend quality time with your children?
Our family is big on long walks so we spend a lot of the weekends heading to parks and playgrounds in NYC. Our son loves the swings in particular and looking at all the dogs in Central Park (despite knowing we’re a cat family!). We also have our weekly brunch tradition in the same place, and he loves sitting in his high chair near us stealing french fries. I also found that baby activities are a lot more tolerable if other adults are present so outdoor baby and parent music classes have been a mainstay this year for us.
We all live in a world with many deadlines and incessant demands for our time and attention. That inevitably makes us feel rushed and we may feel that we can’t spare the time to be “fully present” with our children. Can you share with our readers 5 strategies about how we can create more space in our lives in order to give our children more quality attention? Please include examples or stories for each, if you can.
- I try to focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking can be great, but also results in work mistakes if I’m watching my son at the same time. I put my phone down, get on the floor, and play with him without distractions.
- If I see my son is independently playing, I try crossing chores off my list like grocery orders or paying online bills so I’m not dealing with those tasks during time I can focus on work or relax
- Hire or ask for help when you need it- I’m very upfront that we have a weekly cleaner because I can spend those hours with my family instead
- Automate your life where you can- our entire household is automated on Amazon’s Subscribe and Save. Having toilet paper and cat food arrive like clockwork means I don’t have to go to the supermarket or waste time remembering to order something.
- Be flexible in your work schedule if you can- there are a lot of hard parts in running a startup, but the flexible schedule is a perk when you have a young child. My cofounder and I are very transparent with each other and figured out a schedule that works for both Upfront and our families. That can mean I stop working at 5pm, spend a few hours with my son before his bedtime, then log back in to finish work.
How do you define a “good parent”? Can you give an example or story?
A good parent is someone who supports their child to become a self-sufficient, caring human being. We really prioritize our son’s independence and autonomy through letting him feed himself and playing with his toys alone. I was a Resident Assistant in college, and the number of parents who came to me asking to teach their 18 years old how to do basic things like laundry astounded me.
How do you inspire your child to “dream big”? Can you give an example or story?
My son is only one so it’s a bit early to start with him! But we plan to expose him to travel, art, and different food so he’s always seeing new things and trying to learn what else is out there in the world. And if he is half as passionate about the price of daycares as his mom, then I’ll be very proud.
How do you, a person who masterfully straddles the worlds of career and family, define “success”?
Success means something different every day- it can mean finishing a really exciting project at work or spending a day relaxing with my son in the park. I see my career and family as being equally important parts of my life.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a better parent? Can you explain why you like them?
Our family swears by Emily Oster- we just love her and her data-driven approach to parenting decisions. Her books are non-judgmental and helped us assess what worked best for our family.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My mom coined the perfect life motto: be smart, not right. It’s really easy with work and parenting to think like “this is the way things should be done” without realizing how that actually plays out. I try to pick my battles- my son won’t always eat his dinner and sometimes he gets peanut puffs instead. It’s not the end of the world.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Not surprisingly for someone who runs a company dedicated to the price of daycare, we’re very focused on talking about money. It’s a topic I think is often overlooked in both work and parenting. We rarely share our salaries or the average cost of childcare. From our research, we found that parents think a baby’s first year costs $5,000 when it’s closer to $21,000. That comes from lack of conversations and tools that share how much things truly cost.
Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!
Dana Levin-Robinson of Upfront: How Extremely Busy Executives Make Time To Be Great Parents was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.