Working Parents share Parenting and Household Responsibilities

Balancing work and family simultaneously isn’t an easy task. In today’s outlook having both parents working is quite common and so it becomes all the more difficult to manage while juggling between the two. Working mothers are expected to look after the family, take care of children, manage office work, all at once and that too in a perfect manner. The common routine during weekdays becomes something like this:

Making children ready for school- getting yourself all set to go to work- coming back to deal with household work- helping children in their studies- sleep- and repeat.

So where is the time left for your own self? For such parents, weekends are the only escape that too all of them don’t even get two offs. A single off in a week doesn’t suffice six days of a hectic schedule. That one day consists of extra household works, taking children out and other duties to be done outside for further management of the house.

What are the common challenges faced by working parents?

• Me-time- unable to find time for yourself to relax your mind and body and take care of your health.
• Studies- looking after school schedule and studies of their children.
• Compromising family time- not being able to spend quality time with family at home or while exploring different places.
• Household chores- managing the house as a whole and performing its activities.
• Deadlines- meeting work deadlines while working out other things in mind.

Sharing household, work, and parenting responsibilities

Since the last generation, a lot of families have both parents working. Hence, sharing responsibilities provides a helping hand to the couple. For those who have maids and cooks already get some help with the household chores. Apart from them, couples who require handling everything by themselves should start by sharing certain responsibilities like dividing domestic work amongst them, which can also be done on the basis of alternate days.

Another option can be speaking to your employer and discussing the issue so that different approaches like part-time jobs, work from home, or opposite shifts could be assigned to one of them for a period of time.

Nuclear family vs joint family

For nuclear families, everything falls on the shoulders of the couple while on the contrary, it becomes a little easier for the joint families as here the grandparents or any other member in the house can take care of the child.

Tips to balance family and work responsibilities:

• Try to organize certain things at night so that mornings become hassle-free.
• Make your child follow a fixed time table so that their routine becomes easier to manage.
• Inculcate in your kids the habit of being independent right from childhood, so that they can at least do their job themselves.
• Think of substitute activities which are relaxing like yoga, playing board games, etc. This will enable you to spend time with children as well as enjoy and relax.
• Limit your work to office boundaries.
• Lastly, remove the guilt of not being able to be a good parent or employee.

Is it right to resume working when the child is small?

Getting back to work while the child is very young seems a difficult task. The constant tension of how the child is never leaves the mind. Along with it one also needs to focus on the tasks at the workplace. In short, being present physically at work and mentally at both places. Though this can be resolved by sharing responsibilities. Some other popular solutions for working parents looking for alternatives for their childcare are:

1. Appointing a nanny for your kids while you complete your work.
2. Sending your children to daycare or creche during office hours.

Do’s and don’ts for working parents:

• Always check on your child by asking them about what they did the whole day, whom did they interact with, or what new things and facts they came across.
• Teach them about good and bad touch. You may not be with them 24x7 so it’s better to be more precautious than regretting later.
• Make your child memorize your contact numbers and address.
• If looking for daycare, try to find one that’s easy to reach out from your workplace as well as home. This might be helpful during any kind of emergency.
• Plan out some days to spend time with your child. This will be a getaway for all from the daily routine and act as a stress buster.

Does the upbringing of a child get hampered if both parents are working?

If the child is given proper love, care, attention, good guidance, and their needs are looked after along with the necessary time spent with parents, the upbringing cannot be affected negatively. There are a lot of working couples out there with successful children. This let alone cannot be a factor for hampering the upbringing of children. 

Managing work and Family in the current scenario:

In the current situation of a pandemic, on one hand, parents are working from home and on the other, children are also having online classes while staying back. It becomes problematic to work at peace while also having to look if the child is able to take classes in a proper way along with domestic work which is an everyday task. Daycare centers are closed and nannies are also not available during these times.

It’s a little difficult time to cope up with all the things but as mentioned above, swapping duties might help to reduce the load.

Working parents have a hard time managing their finances as well. With a lack of time, it becomes necessary for them to appoint domestic help and nannies or send their child to the creche. All these things sum up to adding an extra aspect to the budget management. But as they say, parenting isn’t an easy task, it brings along a lot of challenges to be faced and dealt with. So, if the challenge has been accepted then, giving your best to conquer it remains the only way out. Therefore, buckle up parents to be a successful multitasker.

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