Marisol is a working mother. Did I mention she has a toddler? Isn't that fascinating? Don't you want to see pictures at inappropriate times?

Dear Marisol:

So, you felt that you should invite your brother to your departmental seminar. Maybe you are not aware that these seminars are considered professional presentations in which you discuss your research and the faculty and your peers evaluate and critique it based upon their professional opinions. You may have noticed that other students' families do not attend them. This is because your talk is not a ceremony, where Mamma and Daddy get to see people clap politely for you. It is a chance for you to get honest, expert feedback on your work. "The fam" are not experts. Perhaps you are not familiar with the notion of having professional, nonsocial interactions. That would explain why you plastered pictures of your toddler on your acknowledgments slide, even though I'm pretty sure she had nothing to do with designing the experiments, collecting/analyzing the data, or presenting the results. And it would explain why you feel compelled to drag her to all conferences, even when it's totally inappropriate. Actually, I'm pretty sure that the words "professional" and "appropriate" have no meaning to you. That's why I am not even bothering to actually communicate my opinions to you. 

Cheers! 

Jane