Working and parenting are activities that involve substantial amounts of effort and time. If you are responsible for maintaining work and nurturing children, you may find that filling the innumerable necessities of both responsibilities can be challenging.
With some careful planning and thought, it is possible to effectively integrate both parts into your life. Just follow these simple suggestions for how to balance Parenting and work.
1). Wise Time Management
• Always keep a calendar that you use for both family and work. This places equal importance on both timetables, and allows you to make plans with both schedules on timely basis.
• Simply follow the same routine every day. When your children know precisely what to expect and what is expected of them, it is much easier to keep them task oriented and acting independently, which eventually safe lot of time and decrease lots of stress as well, particularly in an urgency.
• Arrange for mornings tasks the night before. Avoid time-consuming morning arguments by selecting the following day’s attires before bed, and reduce the morning hustle by pre-packing backpacks and lunches.
• You can take benefit of the earliest part of the day. The few hours before your children wake up are great for private time, and can be utilized to shower, exercise, read or just enjoy a cup of coffee.
2). Telecommuting with Employer
Even working from home only a few hours a week can provide you with the extra time you may need to spend with your children and/or catch up on housework, especially when you consider drive time.
3). Involved in your Children’s Schooling
• Make it a point to help your children with their homework. Not only does this promote their academic well-being, but it is also quality time spent together.
• Use sick or personal days to attend school functions and field trips.
• Combine work and parenting by volunteering your professional skills to the PTA. For example, if you are a chef, then you may volunteer to donate pastries to the bake sale, or if you are a bookkeeper, you may offer to be the PTA treasurer. Focus on things you can do even if your work schedule doesn’t allow for you to be at the school in person.
4). Partnership with your Childcare Provider
Having a personal relationship with your children’s caregiver can relieve a lot of the stress associated with working and parenting. The more involved you are with your children’s home away from home, the less you worry about them when you can’t be with them.
• Choose your caregiver carefully. It is important that you and the person who will be watching your children while you are at work have similar child-rearing philosophies. This provides consistency and stability for the children, and reinforces your home-based parenting efforts.
• Communicate openly and regularly about any behavioral issues you notice your children having at home, and work with your caregiver to formulate a plan for countering problem behavior on both fronts.
• Visit the childcare facility on a regular basis, even when you are not there to pick up or drop off the kids, just to stay involved and aware of what your children’s day is like.
• Contribute things like games and snacks, and volunteer to help when you can.
5). Make a Sick Plan
When your child gets sick, it is important that you are able to ensure your child’s care and handle it in a way that does not threaten your work reputation or position. Prepare for such occurrences in the following ways:
• Save some of your own sick days for when you have a sick child.
• If your childcare provider does not accept sick children, then arrange for a local caregiver who can come to your home on an on-call basis.
6). Assign Tasks
Lessen your load by assigning household chores to each family member, making the children responsible for their own personal hygiene (showers, brushing teeth, fixing hair, etc.) and requesting that each family member cook 1 night of the week. Just be sure to keep age-appropriateness in mind.
7). Meal Planning Ahead of Time
Try these techniques to save on time and effort:
• Use the crock pot to slow-cook meals while you are at work.
• Double the recipe when you make dinner, then freeze the extra in an airtight container until you are ready to bake it.
• Make a casserole the night before, then reheat it in the oven when you get home from work.
It is essential for parents to balance their work life and parenting which requires considerable amount of time and energy.
