Pregnant as ATC

[KAB]

I've searched everywhere I can and can't find any information about this. Does anybody have any experience with being pregnant or having a partner who was pregnant while they were working as a controller? Or even someone who was on a training team with a pregnant developmental.

Specifically, I'm looking for experiences and opinions on if it's best to plan to have a baby during training, or wait until CPC. And if waiting, how long?

Honestly, any info would be cool. If you worked with a controller that was pregnant and noticed something, I'd like to hear that too. Just please be polite.

 

[Mike Kilo]

The only thing I will say is to CPC first. Your job isn’t guaranteed/secured until you do. Training can be stressful enough without such a drastic change in the home life. That being said, at a center with a 2-3 year training program I would probably do whatever my significant other and I thought was best. Three years would be a long time to put off having kids if you were ready now.

 

[KAB]

The only thing I will say is to CPC first. Your job isn’t guaranteed/secured until you do. Training can be stressful enough without such a drastic change in the home life. That being said, at a center with a 2-3 year training program I would probably do whatever my significant other and I thought was best. Three years would be a long time to put off having kids if you were ready now.

Thank you for your reply!

I guess I should add: my husband and I are both Terminal option in the Academy. We were sent home due to COVID-19 on the first day of Table Tops (4 weeks left until placement). No one knows when we will go back to finish. But we will be at a low level tower together, so that's a bit of a unique situation...

 

[Mike Kilo]

Thank you for your reply!

I guess I should add: my husband and I are both Terminal option in the Academy. We were sent home due to COVID-19 on the first day of Table Tops (4 weeks left until placement). No one knows when we will go back to finish. But we will be at a low level tower together, so that's a bit of a unique situation...

So we’ll see a kid in nine months anyway ?. Terminal you guys should get through training 6-12 months and can have a better idea of your plans. Bid out or homestead etc.

 

[Shikaka]

We just washed a trainee with 5 kids, they bought a house here expecting to certify, currently walks around the base building haunting the Supes. Secure your future before you secure a family...

Edit: To be fair I had my first kid after certifying on GC, 2 weeks of FMLA then got put straight into LC. It wasn't horrible, my wife is a trooper, but I knew I didn't have a guaranteed job for the whole time. And the fallback was going back to a middle management gig in San Francisco and restarting the timer on offing myself in that career field.

 

[Phillyman2633]

I'd probably wait until COVID is over before planning

 

[Spoony90]

I would never put my life on hold for this job. It’s not worth it. Live your life, have your kids. Having said that, I wouldn’t buy a house or anything like that without being a CPC. That’s just dumb to do that. I guess I see both sides of it lol

We just washed a trainee with 5 kids, they bought a house here expecting to certify, currently walks around the base building haunting the Supes. Secure your future before you secure a family...

Damn do we work in the same facility? Lol

 

[GoodEnough]

My wife was pregnant when I showed up to the academy as on OTS hire and had the baby as I was mid training at my facility about to go to RTF. Second kid came during training at my second facility, so I can’t say how it would be from a woman’s perspective but as a partner, it’s manageable. I wouldn’t put your life on hold as some others have said. I personally didn’t feel like it had a big impact on training, mostly just less sleep.

 

[PushingTin]

Have your kids! You only live once kids are far more important than a sedentary govt job that will zap your ambition and leave you anxious and Ill tempered many nights, especially in training. and when you do go into stop training status, get your paid leave, the system is set up for you, the world is your Oyster! When the old salty miserable fat ppl complain and harass you File an EEO and get your pick of any facility in the country. Win! Whatever you do, do not give up the actual meaningful important lifestuff for a few pieces of gold or govt cheez. Good luck but wont need it I'm certain you can have your cake and eat it to. Free yourself from the bondage of this would be peer pressure and group think. Stay humble about ATC when you're plugged in and it will work out. #BestJobInTheWorld

 

[Shikaka]

Damn do we work in the same facility? Lol

Level 5 with an unusually high washout rate and working Air Races and Burning Man for the busy seasons?

 

[FightingIrish2012]

Have your kids! You only live once kids are far more important than a sedentary govt job that will zap your ambition and leave you anxious and Ill tempered many nights, especially in training. and when you do go into stop training status, get your paid leave, the system is set up for you, the world is your Oyster! When the old salty miserable fat ppl complain and harass you File an EEO and get your pick of any facility in the country. Win! Whatever you do, do not give up the actual meaningful important lifestuff for a few pieces of gold or govt cheez. Good luck but wont need it I'm certain you can have your cake and eat it to. Free yourself from the bondage of this would be peer pressure and group think. Stay humble about ATC when you're plugged in and it will work out. #BestJobInTheWorld

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This guy is actually right here, right about everything actually. I used to think people like this were the most bitter, ungrateful dicks in the world. And I thought someone who got pregnant while training was unappreciative of the opportunity and slapping the career in the face.

But now I fully get how many people become bitter, ungrateful dicks, and that it’s not always unreasonable to wind up that way. I also see how this career is not worthy of special treatment such as putting off a pregnancy or not taking leave until you are done training.

His statements about the the whole deck and all the rules being stacked in your favor could not be more true. Go to a TRB while pregnant and you will get a guaranteed extension. Not be a full CPC and have there be any government shut down or unrest, you get free leave. Anyone looks at you badly during any of that, file a EEO and go to a preferential facility. I used to detest anyone who would take advantage of that stuff but you will eventually see the overwhelming majority of the workforce are self centered scammers in each of their own way, so if anyone plays any of the games mentioned above they are not really worse then the general population, it’s just what the workforce is evolving into.

 

[Spoony90]

I just saw first hand what an EEO can get you. Just had a female controller leave my facility to go to her hometown as a supe. Filed multiple EEO complaints (all the investigations came back unfounded) and turned the whole facility upside down. But hey, she got what she wanted ??‍♂️

 

[Shikaka]

I just saw first hand what an EEO can get you. Just had a female controller leave my facility to go to her hometown as a supe. Filed multiple EEO complaints (all the investigations came back unfounded) and turned the whole facility upside down. But hey, she got what she wanted ??‍♂️

We are definitely from the same damn place lol

 

[nbc1179]

We just had our first kid in the middle of my d-side training at a center. Don’t let this job dictate your life - you guys decide what is best for you. I took two weeks off to support my wife and be home, wasn’t that big of a deal, trainers/co-workers-Sups were all supportive and understanding. Fully checked out on d sides now!

 

[Peter Gibbons]

My personal experience has changed my opinion on this. Wife and I were going to wait to start a family until I was done training at my current facility. I've come to the realization putting off life events for this career is dumb. Wife and I have our first on the way, granted I'm not carrying the kid, but will it affect my training? I'm sure, absolutely. I'm not going to let the FAA or the multitude of local problems at my facility when it comes to obscene training times dictate the rest of my life though.

All the "slap in the face to your trainers and the career" and "they don't want it enough" people are idiots. I do this job so I can have a life and good standard of living outside of the job to provide for a family and myself.

You'll probably get some backlash from the try hards who think atc is a personality and a way of life, but seriously.... Fuck em. It's a job not a religion.

 

[GulfBravoPapa]

I don't know much about FMLA or if the FAA will get added to the paid parental leave but something to consider since you are literally brand new is the lack of leave you will have accrued.

 

[GulfCharlie]

My personal experience has changed my opinion on this. Wife and I were going to wait to start a family until I was done training at my current facility. I've come to the realization putting off life events for this career is dumb. Wife and I have our first on the way, granted I'm not carrying the kid, but will it affect my training? I'm sure, absolutely. I'm not going to let the FAA or the multitude of local problems at my facility when it comes to obscene training times dictate the rest of my life though.

All the "slap in the face to your trainers and the career" and "they don't want it enough" people are idiots. I do this job so I can have a life and good standard of living outside of the job to provide for a family and myself.

You'll probably get some backlash from the try hards who think atc is a personality and a way of life, but seriously.... Fuck em. It's a job not a religion.

This. Your perspective changes as time goes on, I remember when I was constantly applying thinking I would do anything for the Agency. Boy have times changed...

 

[Shikaka]

Always have a plan B for employment if the FAA falls through

 

[ClearanceClarence]

Always have a plan B for employment if the FAA falls through

I hear the drug kingpin business is booming.