Managing the Juggle! Tips for Working Parents
Balancing the demands of a career with the responsibilities of parenthood is a challenge that many working parents face on a daily basis. From juggling deadlines and meetings to attending school events and caring for children, finding harmony between professional and family life can often feel like an impossible battle. It’s not impossible to find balance, but it can be really hard and often requires careful thought and honest conversations within the family, with employers and any additional caregivers your family uses to enable parents to work. As a coach who supports a lot of families especially mum’s managing this difficult juggle, balancing the needs of their family, with the requirements of their job, their career aspirations I hear all the time about how hard and exhausting the juggle is and how much guilt people experience trying to do it all. I also have my own experience as a full time working mum of this, the constant guilt at home and work, the panic when childcare falls through and the dread when you get the call from nursery that your child is sick and needs picking up now, just as you need to go into a very important meeting!
I promise that with the right strategies and support in place, it is possible for working parents to thrive both in their careers and as parents. Below are some practical tips and advice for achieving a better balance between parenthood and professional life:
Establish Clear Boundaries: Set clear boundaries between work and family time to ensure that both aspects of your life receive the attention they deserve. Try to designate specific hours for work-related tasks and make a conscious effort to disconnect and focus on family during non-working hours. Work emergencies will always arise but having set clear boundaries, you can choose which emergencies may mean that on this occasion you will reallocate time and holds you to account for taking time back for yourself and your family.
Prioritise Tasks: Prioritise your tasks based on their urgency and importance, and tackle them accordingly. Identify key priorities for both work and family and allocate your time and energy accordingly. Remember that it’s okay to delegate or say no to tasks that are not essential. Consider reading or listening to Eve Rodsky’s wonderful book Fair Play. I listened to this over several nights lying on my toddlers bedroom floor while holding their hand, willing them to sleep! It really helped me focus on what was important and get rid of tasks that were sucking my time and energy but not adding enough to our family life to justify that time and energy.
Communicate Effectively: Effective communication is key to managing expectations both at work and at home. Be transparent with your employer about your family commitments and communicate any scheduling conflicts or flexibility needs in advance. Similarly, communicate openly with your family about your work commitments and involve them in decision-making processes about what needs to happen in the family to enable you to meet your work commitments. I had been trying to parent like I didn’t have a job and do my job like I wasn’t a parent, talking to my new boss about my parenting commitments felt terrifying to me, would it impact my promotion chances, would they think I was less committed etc. I was really pleasantly surprised by how well those conversations went and how there was flexibility and understanding, my boss just hadn’t known before what would help me and didn’t seem to think anything I was saying was unreasonable! A classic case of don’t ask, don’t get!
Seek Support: Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Reach out to a partner, family members, friends, or trusted colleagues for support with childcare, household chores, or emotional support. Consider enlisting the help of a professional nanny, babysitter, or other care provider to alleviate some of the parenting responsibilities. Many of my clients find that choosing to prioritise spending on some additional help around the house to enable them to continue working made a huge difference to the ability to manage the juggle. Many say it was a valuable use of money and talking with their partners or other financially invested family members enabled them to decide as a family where they would cut back spending to enable spending on more help. I worked for a long time without spending
Practice Self-Care: Prioritise self-care and make time for activities that nourish your mind, body, and soul. Whether it’s exercising, practicing mindfulness, reading a book, or taking time for a hobby, carving out time for self-care is essential for maintaining your overall well-being and resilience. There is a brilliant book by Eve Rodsky (available as an audio book for those that don’t have time to read a physical book) called Fair Play, I encourage lots of parents to read it, it has really clear strategies for helping families achieve balance and speaks to the importance of self-care while recognising how difficult it can be for working parents to even think of prioritising this.
Embrace Flexibility: Embrace flexibility in both your work and family life to accommodate unexpected challenges or opportunities. Explore flexible work arrangements such as remote work, flexible hours, or compressed work weeks that allow you to better balance your professional and family responsibilities. If your role cannot enable that, can your partner or one of your care givers work more flexibly to
Set Realistic Expectations: Be realistic about what you can genuinely accomplish in a day and set achievable goals for yourself both at work and at home. Avoid comparing yourself to others and focus on your own progress and accomplishments. Don’t believe the content of my many parent accounts on social media, the reality behind those perfect images is often so different from what you see on social media.
Create Quality Family Time: Make the most of the time you spend with your family by creating meaningful and memorable experiences together. Prioritise quality over quantity and focus on being present and engaged during family activities. This doesn’t mean you need to have lavish days out or activities planned but that the time you do spend together you are present for whatever you do, whether it’s playing a game with your children, prepping dinner together, going to the park, children crave the attention of their parents far more than lavish activities and the attention parents gave them is much more of what children remember when they reflect on their childhoods.
Take Advantage of Employer Benefits: Take advantage of any employer-sponsored benefits or resources available to working parents, such as parental leave, childcare subsidies, private healthcare or employee assistance programs. These benefits can provide valuable support and resources to help you navigate the challenges of balancing work and family life.
Be Kind to Yourself: Finally, be kind to yourself and practice self-compassion as you navigate the ups and downs of parenthood and professional life. Remember that it’s okay to make mistakes and that you are doing the best you can in a challenging situation. No one is perfect and every parent has struggled with the juggle at times if you can be kind to yourself you’ll feel better and you’ll be role modelling self compassion which in turn will help them be kind to themselves in tougher times.
Balancing parenthood and professional life is hard and at times all of us need help with this. If you need help with balancing parenthood and professional life, then please reach out to me. I can support you with making intentional steps to help you achieve a better balance between career and family responsibilities, leading to greater satisfaction and fulfilment both personally and professionally. To book a complimentary call to explore how we could work together click here
