Parents in Tech Podcast

Jan 3, 2022

Listen

Baby Tech, Quality Time and Asking for Help, with Dr. Petty Chen Originally published on Parents in Tech Podcast on 2022-01-03

Transcript

Qin En 00:06 Hi, I am - Qin En, and this is the Parents in Tech podcast. In this episode, we speak to - Dr Petty, Director of Medical Products at ASUS. - Dr Petty has an incredible career, first as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, then a hospital planner and administrator, followed by a career in health care product management. She also pursued a Masters of Public Health at Harvard University with a newborn in tow. Amidst her busy schedule, she also blogs about baby tech and parenting advice to share learnings from raising a two year old daughter.
Qin En 00:50 Hi, Dr. Petty. Welcome to the Parents in Tech show. To begin with, can you tell us about your family?
-Dr Petty 00:56 Yeah, so I’m Taiwanese, I grew up in Taiwan. I moved to the States when I was a kid and decided to come back to Asia when I’m an adult. So you could say that I’ve been around the world. I’ve moved a fair bit in my life. My husband and I are both working here in Singapore. My husband is an orthopedic surgery trainee, and I’m a Director of Product Management at a ASUS’s AI department.
Qin En 01:20 In your current role as head of product at ASUS, how do you explain your job to your child?
Dr Petty 01:26 I actually brought her to coding lessons when she was about three or four months old. That was back when I was working for GovTech, Open Government Products, which is a specialized unit building tech for the public good. Back then my colleagues offered classes on how to set up things in AWS and so I actually just brought her along because I didn’t have help. So she was looking at how to code things, even though I don’t think she understood any of it. But she was learning along with me when I was learning how to code.
Qin En 01:57 At that point, I’m sure that she probably wasn’t aware that she was in a space where at least quietness was important. So did she wail, was she challenging or was she quite cooperative? 02:09 She was cooperative for most of the time, and then - until she got a little bit fussy because there got to be to a point that it was too boring for a little kid, everybody just staring at their screen trying to like do the next step. And then she was just like, nobody’s playing with her, so she got a little bit fed up. My boss was super understanding at that point in time. He was just like, “You just take the time you need.” He actually joined in to be one of the mentors to teach people how to code, so it was good to have such understanding boss.
Qin En 02:37 That’s a first, right, especially the three to four months. That is when you are, as a mum, still trying to figure out a routine, trying to navigate with all the changes. I can imagine that was challenging. But, you know, the whole idea of attending a coding class while you’re still figuring all of this out, what drove you to do this?
Dr Petty 02:54 I’m a doctor by training, so I’ve worked at Singapore General Hospital. I also worked at KK doing plastic surgery, not the aesthetic type that people usually think but, really, how to help kids and women who had breast cancer and they need to do reconstructive surgeries for the breast cancer, tumor removal and so on. So it was a huge transition to go from clinical to then subsequently hospital administration. I spent a few years building hospitals in Singapore and then transitioning to tech completely. So I actually made a few jumps in my career. What really motivated me to do the job? Well, I guess, in a way, it’s like an opportunity that was presented to you and whether or not you want to jump. So when I was doing plastic surgery, I love surgery. Till this day, I still love surgery. It’s just a difference in terms of what I choose to do. When you’re doing surgery, your life is tied to the hospital. You rarely see your family. When I get home on the weekends, I literally just catch up on sleep. I don’t see anybody else other than my husband. That got me thinking, like, why don’t I try other types of work that is still clinically related, and if I really love surgery, I will still come back to it. It’s never too late.
Qin En 04:07 Walk us through a bit of the journey. So you were trained as a medical doctor, as a surgeon, and you went into hospital management, but now you are in health tech as a product manager. Tell us how did that next transition happen from hospital management to health product management? 04:21 I really have to thank my boss. She was the one that pushed me to learn tech in the hospital. I was planning the workflow, so I worked very closely with the various department heads and nurse managers. We had to plan both inpatient and outpatient journeys. And that essentially is like a workflow for how the hospital is run on a day to day basis. And because I understood how the hospital operates so well, I was tasked to try to figure out how we would be able to insert technology into the workflow. Most people who do tech, they think tech itself will solve all the problems but the truth in a hospital is that it’s the other way around. You want to make sure your processes and technologies join nicely together, and how does it flow from the moment that the patient land at your door all the way to their going home, going back to the community. So because of her push to get me thinking about how can I use my understanding of data and also how the hospital system is set up in a way that the tech can just help heal these processes. And so she asked me to take on a hardware project and also trying to figure out some of the data schema for the tag that we were working on. It was a patient tag, and they eventually became a both doctor and patient tag. So this tag system allows you to tell how far apart the doctor and the patient is in terms of the distance and what is the exposure duration, which then became essentially an outbreak surveillance tool that was used during COVID. I got really interested in the technology because I was like, well, then you can do so many things. Like, if you can figure out how the data flows from the hardware all the way to where you’re keeping the records, then there’s so many things that you can do with the data. At that point, I started to learn a little bit about Python. It was definitely hard. I would not saying coding is easy. Like, it’s not the same as you going in and becoming a PM. That it’s a completely different level in terms of what you need to know to run a product.
Qin En 06:27 Absolutely. You know, I remember quite a number of years back when I was trying to learn coding, I remember I signed up for those coding courses. And almost I felt like I went through the whole course, I was religious about it, I did my homework, but at the end, I was like, I don’t really know the language still, right. And shortly after, a week later, I found that I pretty much forgot everything I learned because there was no way I could apply it. How did you overcome this, right? Because essentially, just attending a course is quite limited. How did you take the next step to really develop a deeper understanding of what you were working with? 07:00 I started with the basics. For Python, my idea was that if I could use Python in a way that helped me analyze data in a more efficient way, that kind of achieves my goal. I was doing manpower planning and doing manpower projection for my subsequent p posting at Woodlands Health, and instead of using Excel, I was trying to use Python to automate some of these calculation processes. And because you were using it on a day to day basis, it meant that it was a lot easier to sink in the information and trying to figure out as you go. Definitely use a lot of Stack Overflow because you don’t have a textbook and some of the problems you encounter, you can’t really solve it yourself. I thought that was the best way for me to really understand the basics of how to use the language in a meaningful way. When I do data analysis, what really prompted me to have a more rigorous understanding of data science was when I was taking my MPH at Harvard. This program is meant for clinicians, so it’s a bit longer than the on site program, and it’s also part time which meant that I could work and still take classes at the same time. We mostly code in Stata, which is a statistics software, and - but then it’s very similar in terms of how R and Python structures. Even then, when I was still learning Stata and trying to piece things together, it was still hard. It took me I would say close to two plus, three years to really get comfortable in using the programming language. Then the next job was I happened to meet my ex-boss at a talk, and he was looking for a PM. I said that I’m interested I’m learning more about technology, and I don’t have the traditional clinical background. He was down for having someone that has a different perspective in terms of how technology should be built.
Qin En 08:48 Wow. Thanks for sharing that - `Dr Petty. So it sounds like you wanted to learn this, and you very actively and consciously brought it to your work, right. And even though there were ways to do it, for example, the easy way of using Excel, I’m sure it was almost like putting yourself in the discomfort zone. Maybe something that will take you one hour now takes two or three hours, because you got to add in the Stack Overflow research time, but that was really something that just strikes me as quite unique, right? And did you find that, you know, there were times where you were so frustrated, you know, you wanted to give up on this journey?
Dr Petty 09:21 Definitely. I think tech is like medicine: you never reach a level of confidence that you feel like you could do everything for sure. Like even if you are, you know, 10 years in the clinical career, you would never feel super confident in everything that you do. And I wouldn’t say that I would give up because I think that each career would have their own challenges, and it’s just how do you overcome it with the resources that you have? Like, I happen to work with a bunch of engineers who very graciously dedicated their time to walk me through some of the basic concepts, the fundamentals of computer science.
Qin En 09:55 Finding the support community, the people who can coach you and guide you - I find that googling a Stack Overflow helps sometimes, but, you know, the shortcut is to ask someone - a peer, a trusted friend - to coach you. At least for me, in my journey, when I was building my very rudimentary knowledge of coding back in college, I would always bug my roommate to just walk me through and explain things. Now, you did mention that you’re doing this masters that was part time on the weekend. Where were you and your family at that point in time? Were you married? Did you already have your kid? How did you find the time to do all of that?
Dr Petty 10:28 I was already married. I married right off of med school. It was just out of convenience because we had a summer break. After you become a doctor, it’s really hard to find breaks to go and get married. I didn’t have a kid when I started my masters because I was trying to finish on time, because I had my kid right during the on-campus portion, so my kid was born in June. We usually would go back to the campus during the June period for our, like, on-campus course. But I had to, like, push that back one more year because, I mean, I was literally in the hospital with my kid when we were in class, so, like, I couldn’t make it. The class itself was certainly challenging. You can just imagine ,like, it’s a shortened course, like, squashed down to, like, 10 to 15 hours a week of commitment, so you really have to be mindful of how much time you have. I was actually taking, like, full load of course even though I had a kid. I actually got straight A’s which is weird because, you know, like, you just weren’t as motivated before, but once you have a kid, you’re just like, I don’t have enough time to do everything in my life, so I got to just be super focused all the time. And that really helped me get through my masters degree.
Qin En 11:42 That is amazing. So I can imagine juggling all the classes plus the stresses of being a new mom, yet, at the same time, getting all straight A’s. That is really, really impressive. Did you find that it was hard to draw boundaries, especially, you know, spending time on your studies versus taking care and being present with a child who, I guess, at that point, really demanded a very high level of attention from you?
Dr Petty 12:06 Yes, it was hard to draw boundaries. I went back to class less than one or two months after I had my kid. I was still breastfeeding at that time. And I would have to breastfeed my kid and then watch the video at 2x speed and then try to do my homework when she’s sleeping. Now that I think of it, it was kind of crazy, but then at that point, you’re just kind of like, I gotta do it, just do it. For people that are trying to learn skills, or they’re trying to go through classes, it’s not really about thinking how you would do it. Just go ahead and do it. Then you will figure it out as you go. At the end of it, you have done a lot of stuff. I think that’s my own experience. If I thought through how I was gonna do it, I don’t think I would have ever done it.
Qin En 12:51 I love it. It’s almost like, you know, don’t think so much about it. Don’t overthink it, just go about doing it. So maybe if I can ask, what was one routine or one productivity hack that you learned in this journey that you could share with us?
Dr Petty 13:05 Definitely watch your videos at 2x speed. That was the most efficient way of getting through the lessons. Also taking some time for yourself. I realized I was burning out a bit, and then so sometimes I would just ask my husband for help so that I can get some time off, even if it’s just taking a shower by myself and not having a kid around. That does help you calm down and then get back to the grind again.
Qin En 13:30 I really like that point because I think the ability and the opportunity to speak out is so important. That’s something that I learned in this first year of parenthood with my wife, right? There are just times when it’s just been a long day, there’s a lot of things going on, and like you said, right, all you need is a shower, your own quiet time, your quiet space without the child crying or wailing outside. And to be able to communicate that and say that, I think that’s so so helpful. And I imagine that you will need also a very strong support network. I’m sure you had to have these conversations with your husband as you were thinking about having the kid while pursuing further education. What did those conversations look like?
Dr Petty 14:09 Well, we’re both the doing type and not so much the let’s talk about how this is gonna - we were just figure it out as it goes, so I definitely knew that we will run into challenges because he does calls and he does it pretty frequently. So calls for doctors is like they stay overnight, and then they come back the next day, and so who was gonna look after my child at that point in time when he goes on call? Do we take, like, a roster approach? Sorry, this sounds so super clinical, but, you know, like, that is how doctors plan the manpowers in the hospitals, and, like, we kind of treat it almost like how we deal with it in a patient care manner. Like, does my helper stay with the baby? Or maybe I get my mom to come in and help. My mom was very, very helpful. She came down a few times whenever I knew that I was going into a very busy period for work, and then she was able to help.
Qin En 15:03 It almost sounds so boring and sounds almost unromantic, right, to be able to lay all these things out, but it’s so necessary because it prevents that miscommunication. It creates the alignment. During that whole process of figuring all of these out, were there moments where you felt really frustrated and stressed, and what was your way of dealing and handling with it?
Dr Petty 15:25 I have very high tolerance for stress, so I wasn’t that stressed, but it was just how do I balance, like, for example, my kid going to see the polyclinic for shots versus, like, the meetings I have to attend, you know, trying to work those logistics out. And my boss was super supportive - well, my ex-boss - so it was flexible working hours. Emotionally, I think you do feel that tension, but then when you’re a parent, you’re just like, when am I going to get to the next phase where she can sleep the whole night? You know, so you’re always like, the next phase. You’re not so focused about the current situation you’re in but hoping for the better part of the childcare journey.
Qin En 16:05 Yeah, it’s like there’s always a goal to get to, and each phase is so different that that’s something that you can look forward to. So you mentioned a bit about, you know, making sure and arranging your schedule before COVID. Now that COVID has happened, how has your schedule changed as a mum and as a tech leader?
Dr Petty 16:22 Working from home certainly was not great for a new parent. I’m just gonna be honest because I think people always like, “Oh, it’s great for you to spend time with your kid at home while you’re working,” but the reality is anytime to critically think and do my research. Like, I was doing zoom calls, and then my kid was just in the back, like, throwing all the diapers on the floor, and, like, it was just a huge mess, and then she had a diaper on her head too. Like, the situation was often like this. During the first phase of the lockdown when I was working from home, she was still pretty young, so she couldn’t, like, go super far, but then she can still destroy everything around her. So that was definitely a challenge while you’re on the Zoom call and be like, “Stop touching that!”
Qin En 17:10 Yeah, I think I’m at that phase now. So sometimes I’m working, and then my daughter would toddle in. She would train her motor skills by peeling open the wet wipes packet and start pulling out wet wipes like It’s like some slot machine. I just take my eyes off for 10 seconds, and the next thing there are like 10 wet wipes all over the floor. So yeah, I completely feel what you’ve been through. So what are one or two things that you had to arrange or change in terms of how you ran your family in order to make this setup more productive and more effective for you?
Dr Petty 17:40 It’s really setting our routine. o I tried to burn her energy before I started work. I used to bring her to the playground so she would be able to burn all her energy. My helper would also be able to watch her while she’s cleaning because she’s doing quiet time and then scheduled the nap around times where I definitely know I will have a daily sync up with the team so that she won’t, like, barge in. She loves being on the Zoom calls. One of the first phrases she learned was “Bye, guys” because I said it so often the Zoom calls. Yeah. Also, how do I make sure that she gets enough time with her dad? Because my husband was working a lot back then, his schedule wasn’t as flexible. That’s when we decided to implement that he would be the one putting her to bed, so I could still catch up on all my work while he does that, making sure that they bond.
Qin En 18:33 Yeah. The setting of the intentional practice and carving out of time, I find it to be so helpful just being able to say, okay, this time putting her to bed creates that routine, right? So almost your daughter can expect that her dad would be the one who put her in and create that special bonding moment. I’m curious Dr. Petty, did you ever consider potentially sending your daughter to preschool? Did that option ever come up?
Dr Petty 18:57 She’s in preschool now, but they just have a lot of holidays. Like today she’s on a holiday. I did not send her to childcare I sent her to preschool.
Qin En 19:05 Right.
Dr Petty 19:06 It’s slightly different. Like, they start at 9 and end at 3. So it’s like school day for a kid, but they focus more on different curriculums. I thought about sending her to childcare, but then I felt that it’s important for her to get exposure to different types of culture while she’s young. Childcare is just for her to play around with other kids. We can always do that, so that’s why I chose to send her to a Japanese/English school. At home, I talk to her mostly in Chinese. My husband talks to her in English. The teachers talk to her in Japanese, and then she can kind of communicate with my husband in Japanese.
Qin En 19:44 That’s amazing. So a trilingual child, and now is really the time where it’s their formative years where learning these languages isn’t that tough, right? If you asked me to learn a third language, I would certainly struggle. This intent; was it clear for you right from the start when you started your preschool search? Because I know that this is something that’s close to the hearts of many parents, including myself, right, as we start to look for childcare or preschool options. There’s so many at so many different price points. Yeah, what was the thought process like? What was the search process like for you?
Dr Petty 20:18 I knew that I wanted to send her to a bilingual school, so then that kind of narrowed down the search a fair bit. We went with the first school that we visited. So what I was looking for was that I didn’t want the school to baby the kid, and the Japanese curriculum really focused on teaching the kid independence. So even as young as, you know, one and a half, which was when she started school, they were asking her to carry her backpack, and then giving her a seat, and now also ask her to set up her lunch area when she’s going for her lunch. So those were the type of things I was looking for in the school. I don’t necessarily need them to teach her, like, alphabets or math, but how do you create good routines, and how do you promote thoughtfulness in a kid? And I think that really comes down to the school that they’re in.
Qin En 21:14 Absolutely. I think this character building part, it’s so important. The way that I was - I am thinking about my own search is you know, I want to school where it’s okay to fall down, and if they fall down, the kids pick themselves up and dust themselves off and continue to play, right. Like, they shouldn’t be babied, and I really loved how you shared about that was something clear. 18 months and, you know, starting to carry your own backpack, I really love that. I should - I should try that when my daughter turns 18 months. Now, you blog, so tell us more about what you write about.
Dr Petty 21:45 I write about the baby tech that I bought so - to make my mom life easier. It’s certainly not a shortcut in terms of parenting, but I bought things like the SNOO which is, like, a bed that gently rocks the baby to sleep when they’re fussy for kids that are between zero to six months age. I also bought baby cameras. I’m sure most parents buy baby cameras, but it’s just, like, whether or not that camera is secure. Being in tech, that’s something that I care about, and how do they process the video data and so on. So I would do those types of evaluation search while I’m looking for something for my own home. I actually never thought about writing this type of blog. It was because people were asking me about my experience having a kid and, what do I do? What is the cloth diapering experience like? And because of all these, I decided that I would just […]. But one of my ex-colleagues from the hospitals actually thought that my blog is hilarious, so he just reads it for fun even though he doesn’t have a kid. But mostly I refer new parents, and they don’t really know what they should be expecting. And I think, like, my parents’ generation, in general, probably not that helpful. I asked my mom for advice before, and she’s like, “We just wing it. You know, there’s no textbook for these things.” I was like, I want to know what’s gonna happen next, right, like, so that I know how I can figure out my career at the same time while having a kid. And that wasn’t something that they face cos my parents lived with their parents before, and so it was easier for them. Because the social support was a lot bigger back then, they didn’t encounter the same type of problems that I faced when I became a new parent.
Qin En 23:29 I completely agree with that. The way we parent the way we raise families, it’s so different. In the past, everyone used to stay under one roof, but I think right now, at least in Singapore, that’s also a challenge, right? The houses are getting smaller and smaller and more expensive, but also even our preferences and lifestyles have changed, and so we need this baby tech or kids tech to really help us to amplify and make us more efficient. What is one particular technology that really changed your life or you really enjoy that you say, Wow, this is like the best investment I’ve made?
Dr Petty 24:00 Definitely the SNOO. It is expensive for sure, and you can’t really get it in Singapore, so I had to ship it over from the US. It helps the baby fall asleep pretty fast, and parents are worried about the kid suffocating during their sleep. And so that’s a pretty common concern, but because the bed strap the baby down, you would never worry about that. On top of that, I think it just helps give you your sleep back. I don’t think I could have functioned if she was not sleeping. I probably would be very cranky too. That was such a lifesaver. And when my husband was on call, it was just me, and it’s hard to put a kid to bed especially when they’re young.
Qin En 24:42 The SNOO; I will definitely check that out. Even though my daughter is slightly older, I think she still has troubles going to bed at night, likes to jump around, so we’ll certainly check that out. Let me ask you the flip side. Was there a particular piece of tech or particular thing that you tried that didn’t work so well?
Dr Petty 25:00 I think it’s more about how I talk to my kid and how that translates to her actions. Like, I can be overly harsh when she does something, you know, that drives the parents crazy. And so how do you talk to your kid in a way that, at their level, they understand why is it that you’re angry, right? I don’t think I do a good job of that. It’s really my husband who complements the discipline. Like, I get angry easily. I have a pretty short temper. That’s the honest truth, and my husband’s the one that will spend, you know, half an hour talking to the kid and really explain why is it that we do certain things, or why is it that she’s in a timeout and what is the impact of her actions. Like, my parents’ generation would feel like that is something that you’re like kind of wasting your effort. But obviously, I think is important to treat the kids like an adult, even though they’re not one. That’s something that I’m still working on as a parent.
Qin En 26:01 Yeah. Thanks so much for being candid on that, - `Dr Petty. I think it’s so true. I guess, in my family, I’m the one who’s - who’s short tempered, but I think it’s understanding what we do well and leveraging those strengths and complementing each other. So I’m really glad that you found that nice balance that you have. I think while it’s also important to explain and talk things out, I think sometimes showing the anger and the intensity of emotions is important because I feel like, especially at a young age, it’s almost like we’ve got to exaggerate it a little, so I see this nice balance, this nice compliment that happens over there. But you also raised a very interesting point also which is the different parenting styles and almost beliefs of our generation versus, let’s say, our parents’ generation. Tell me a bit more about that. Was there some beliefs that was present in, let’s say, earlier generations that you don’t subscribe to?
Dr Petty 26:53 I think when my parents had me, they were just starting out their career, so they were very, very busy. Kids back then were viewed more as like a pair of hands really helping the family in terms of labor. I mean, you can imagine if, like - you know, if you’re a farmer, then like having more kids means that more help, right. And in my parents generation, they didn’t exactly subscribe to that, but it was still more like the kids supposed to behave the way that kids supposed to behave. Like, the kids eat at the kids’ table; they don’t eat at the adults’ table. That’s something that, like, my generation would not be okay with. I think growing up as a kid, you don’t necessarily interact with the parents a lot, and they also feel like spending time with you is just being in the same space as you - that’s actually pretty common in Asian culture - versus when I look at my kid, I don’t necessarily have to be spending all my time with her in a single room, but then if I’m gonna spend the last hour of my day with her, I want to make sure that I don’t have my phone, I’m not working. I’m actually there, like, trying to read to her, trying to engage her, asking her questions so that it promotes a different level of connection that, like, I think my parents’ generation probably didn’t focus as much on.
Qin En 28:14 I do find myself falling into that habit sometimes, but as I read parenting books, that’s very much the case. It’s not about the quantity of time, but it’s about the quality of time, and I think a big part of that is, unfortunately, our screens, whether it’s the phone, tablet, or laptop or TV. Sometimes we mistake that as, you know, spending time with our kids when what they really want is for us to be present and engaging in them. I also noticed, - `Dr Petty, a while back, I guess before you became a product manager, you did some work on gestational diabetes, right? Can you tell us maybe very quickly what gestational diabetes is and also what was the work that you did?
Dr Petty 28:51 Gestational diabetes is essentially having diabetes during your pregnancy. It does occur to some woman in Singapore. Back then before I did my research, it was more for high-risk women, so women who are obese, who are a certain race that is more prone to having diabetes, these are the type of women that usually you will screen them for. My study was looking at the cost effectiveness of screening them universally, which means everybody, versus screening the high-risk people. So in the UK, they screen hig-risk because NHS - they typically don’t have as much resources ,and so, therefore, they have to be very careful in terms of how many people can get screened, and also the incidence rate there is not as high. Here in Singapore, you do get cases of people that may not look like they’re high-risk, but they do have gestational diabetes, and so the cost effectiveness was trying to figure out which screening plan is going to be cost effective, meaning that you spend more money but then you also get more impact out of it. And the study shows that it actually is cost effective to do screening for everybody. And so that paper and that becoming a guidelines that KK and then subsequently nationally, for all women to be screened for gestational diabetes. What it entails is really, the pregnant woman would have to drink a bottle of sugary water. And then after that they get their blood taken at two different time points, and to see what is the sugar level in their blood. So it’s a little bit tedious and […] test. But I think in terms of the pregnancy outcome and also the benefit for the mom is worth it. So we know that people with gestational diabetes actually have a higher risk - 40% that go into type two diabetes later on in life. And so it’s really important for these moms to be caught early in their life and then prevent them from getting that type two diabetes later on, and the baby also because the baby is also higher risk for getting type two diabetes in their life if the mom had gestational diabetes. I thought that work was meaningful for sure, and I’ve gone down to KK and met a woman that had gestational diabetes during her pregnancy. And they always had this concept of blaming themselves. In Chinese words, they would say […], right, because they have to eat a lot of supplements. And because of that, they got gestational diabetes. Sometimes it’s not true, so the nurses, they will try to help correct that mindset and then teach them healthy eating habits and help control their diabetes during the pregnancy.
Qin En 31:27 It’s incredibly meaningful, because what you did, it’s not just implemented one hospital, but nationwide. I remember last year when my wife was pregnant, she also went through that process. I was in fact a little confused because I was like, Why do you need to take the gestational diabetes test? Right? I mean, you exercise, you stay fit. So I think just being able to create awareness and make it accessible, it’s so valuable. The ability for you to create impact on so many levels, whether it’s at a doctor, as someone in hospital management, someone who’s doing gestational diabetes research, and now as a product manager has been quite incredible. So if that’s one lesson you have learned as a parent in tech, Dr. Petty, what is it?
Dr Petty 32:08 Stay agile. Actually, that’s also my advice for all product managers. I think parenting - definitely go through challenges at different age point for your kid. And one type of solution doesn’t solve that kind of problem, right? Like, you just have to be creative in terms of how to address some of the challenges you’ll face with your kid. Like, right now what I’m going through is my kid would get into arguments with other kids at school. I mean, she’s at that age now. And then how do I talk to her in a way that she understands how her words have impacted, how she should carry herself when she’s in school? Like, these are not things that they teach you in a textbook, but you still have to deal with it head on.
Qin En 32:52 Absolutely. That’s golden advice. - `Dr Petty, thank you so much for taking time off to come on to our show today. If our listeners are keen, how can you best connect with you?
Dr Petty 33:01 You can find me on LinkedIn, and you can also find me on Instagram. And feel free to read my blog. I hope it will be helpful for all the new parents out there trying to figure out what kind of diet they should give their kids.
Qin En 33:12 Thank you so much, - Dr Petty. Indeed, your blog is helpful. I’ve already taken it and has shared that with my wife and my helper on how to plan for the diet. It’s been a joy talking to you, - Dr Petty. Thank you so much for coming onto the show.
Dr Petty 33:24 Thank you so much for having me.
Qin En 33:29 Thanks for listening to the Parents in Tech podcast with me, your host, - `Qin En. We hope you were inspired on how to raise kids and build companies. To catch up on earlier episodes or stay updated with upcoming ones, head over to www.parents.fm to join our community of parents in tech. There you can also drop me a question, idea, feedback or suggestion. Once again, the website is www.parents.fm. That’s all for this episode, folks. See you next time.