Let’s interview Mr. Hamauzu, he had brought up his children when he was graduate student (2)

Go and Do. Submit a finished item.

I interviewed Professor Shinji Hamauzu (Graduate School of Letters, Department of Ethics and Clinical Philosophy), he had brought up his children some 30 years ago, when he was a doctoral program student. In this time, he told the life, the child care, and the style of research of that day. （Reporter: KatsuraNoguchi, Translator: Su）

―――What was your life style like? 

Hamauzu: The first daughter was born on November of the second year of the doctoral course. In those days, I usually went to graduate school, studied lots of different things, and did my research. So, even after my daughter was born, I left her in a nursery school. Fortunately, a nursery school stood near, which was an about 5-minute walk from my home. This opened from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. In those days, we could find nursery schools easily. “Even I was a student,” or rather, it might be a big reason for my daughter being accepted that my wife was working. As soon as she came back from maternity leave, we left my daughter in a nursery school from 0 year old. 

　　Well, we had a tough time until 8 weeks since my daughter had been born. When she cried at night, I usually got up, made milk, and let her drink by feeding bottle. We used breast milk and synthetic milk together from an early period. For that, I read “Kurashi no Techo (Notebook of Life).” Is it still available? We ordered NUK, which was a feeding bottle from overseas special manufacturer, lol. I fed my daughter at night, burp her, and bathe her. My wife had never given my daughter a bath because she said “I’m afraid to do it” lol. Well, my hands are large enough to cover her ears when I turned my hands behind her. So, I could bathe her body. 

　　Well, 8 weeks have passed, we began to leave her in a nursery school. Every morning, my wife went to work before I went to a nursery school. I saw her off, saying “Take care, have a nice time. Go home earlier. I’ll make dinner and wait for you.” and she went to work. I usually prepared rice and miso soup. After she went home, we cooked a main dish. We shared our roles as mentioned above. I usually made breakfast, too. Well, after she went to work, I took a little time to clear up, saw my daughter to a nursery school, and took about 1 hour to go to college by bus. I did lots of things until 4 p.m. I said “See you tomorrow,” at 4 p.m., I picked up my daughter and went home. We came home about at 5:30 p.m., but my wife returned after 6:p.m. So, I prepared dinner and miso soup by then. I did the dishes every time. My wife did the other things. So, even though I said “I did this, that, and the other!” she said “I did this, that, and the other! Don’t be proud!” ha-ha. 

　　Well, a nearby nursery school was convenient for ours to use. However, I don’t know what to say, the nursery school was the place that ‘didn’t have any idea of “child care” and looked after children anyhow.’ This nursery school had looked after my daughter since she was 0 year old, but I thought “Should we leave her there until she becomes 6 years old before she enters elementary school? No, there might be a little bit better nursery school.” We looked up some nursery schools and found nice one. This was the “Emile nursery school” named after “Emile” by Rousseau, which practiced the Montessori education. My wife was also interested in Waldorf education, so she wanted our daughter to go to the nursery school that made much of infant education especially. We decided the nursery school in advance, and she transferred to the elementary school near the nursery school, lol. I drove my daughter and wife, and then I went to university by car. And, I went home in time to pick up my daughter. When my wife could go home together, we did the shopping and came home. We only had a red minicar. Oh, therefore, I usually picked up and dropped off my daughter by the red car filled with our memories.

 ―――What did you make much of in childcare? 

Hamauzu: We had a lot of ideas, or were going to have them. My wife read Steiner, Montessori, Emile, Takeji Hayashi, and so on. She wrote her graduation thesis on something like open school; school without classrooms, in which walls got removed and students gathered separately. She studied not specific subject but “pedagogy” in her college days. So, plenty of educational books were put at home and she read “Kurashi no Techo (Notebook of Life)” and “Fujin no Tomo (Lady’s Friend).” We earned money to support ourselves, thought about various things of education of our children, read a lot of books… We two were top-heavy parents, lol. Also, if anything, our ideas preceded details in child care. I had relied on the book “Ikuji no Hyakka (the Encyclopedia of Childcare)” written by Michio Matsuda. I really treasured the book and learned a lot of things from that. For example, “When your children catch a cold, don’t take them to the hospital,” lol. 

　　With nursery school teachers and elementary school teachers… Well, when parent-teacher conferences of elementary school were held, I generally went there. Having done that, those present were almost all mothers and only a few fathers. Then, I usually asked questions and said my opinions. A few days later, my daughter heard of that conference and said to me “Daddy! Don’t ask any questions!! Hold your tongue!! Be quiet!!! Because you stand out!!!” Now, I don’t know how many times my daughter said so to me, ha-ha. I was such a parent. So, in a good sense, teachers might acknowledge my superiority, thinking “He is the good father who thinks a lot about his children.” However, in a bad sense, some might think “He is the troublesome father who states his opinion this and that.” I’ve felt the atmosphere in conferences of nursery school, elementary school, junior high school and high school. Few fathers spoke in parent-teacher conferences. Some mothers spoke, but they mentioned small things. I asked them “Will it work radically?” lol. Teachers said “Well, hum…” That conversation spread among my daughter’s friends, ha-ha. 

　　And then, as I wrote for a newspaper, “You have two pamas, instead of papa and mama.” We had lived up to this idea, but when my daughters reached puberty, it became inconvenient for ours to play the same role. I think that the opportunities for ours to play separate roles was increased; the one stood in their way saying “You must not do bad things,” and the other snuggled up to them. 

―――What was your attitude of tackling studies and researches like? 

Hamauzu: When I went to a doctoral course, I set the quota “I write a thesis once in six months.” Well, though I sometimes achieved and at other times failed, I basically aimed at this. While I worked as an assistant for a year and a half, I wrote 3 theses. So, I constantly wrote theses in that way.

　　 I’ve almost always met the deadline that I had to meet since I was a student. I was unlikely to miss it… or rather, I gave up when it approached. Having thought “Well, there is no longer anything that I can do now,” lol. Even though I made a snap decision, I had to meet the deadline anyway, so I only did the things that I could do by then. In any case, I submitted the thing that I completed by then. In this respect, I had never missed the deadline. 

　　I had originally been a night owl, but my life rhythm suddenly changed after I got married to my wife. That was because I couldn’t help adjusting to her life rhythm. We got up and went to bed at the same time. When I had to write a thesis, I was a night owl. However, I finally couldn’t help but adjust to the routine work of picking up and dropping off my daughter. Even when I’ve been a night owl for one or two days, I had to restore my life rhythm again. That’s why I gradually became a morning person. 

　　I basically went to graduate school and intensively did a lot of things. Then I went home and usually did housework. I might have stayed indoors because of the deadline of my thesis, saying “I must finish my work by tomorrow. So, I’ll leave it to you.” However, as soon as I came home, I didn’t my research any longer. It was not so much “Life and Work Balance” as “Go and Do.” There was the place of research and here was that of life, so I shouldn’t bring the former’s things into the latter. I do so too even now. I usually go to university from morning and stay until evening. I basically finish my work here. As soon as I come home, I don’t work any longer. After all, if I works from home, my work segues into my life. So, I want to separate the former from the latter. Well, though I said so, I decided to finish my work when the deadline approached. Now, I came here by bicycle, didn’t I? I didn’t have any problem at all, weather permitting. However, when I had nothing to do in the college, or when the weather was bad and I had to go to the college by bus, I sometimes did my work at home, thinking “That’s not so bad today, right?” 

　　So, I don’t have so much memory that child care prevented me from researching and stood in my way. Well, that will be a change of pace. And, for a change of pace, I didn’t only what I liked as I pleased, but also did something for my children and saw their growth stepwise. It was so interesting. I’ve taken notes of “what words my daughter learns today.” At first, she only learned “daddy” and “mummy.” When she began to say “mew-mew” or “bow-wow,” I always wrote down the words and the date of that day in a kind of diary. A little while later, she began to speak two word sentence. For example, “Daddy came,” or “Mummy went.” I’ve made a continuous observation of the process of the child’s language acquisition. I think that was quite fun and a good learning experience. I read the book of Merleau-Ponty then, so I took an interest in “Personal relations of infant.” Child care became an opportunity for studying developmental psychology and wasn’t the thing that had absolutely nothing to do with my research. On the contrary, it was a good incentive and gave me a trigger for thinking about. Perhaps, it might be true of the way of relation, not only our children and me, but also my wife and me.