Juggling work and home
With our work and home lives increasingly overlapping – for most U.S. families, both parents work – the ability to unwind and give children the attention they need is an important skill.
So how do I do it?
Identify the things that cause stress in your life. Is more expected of you at work than you can deliver? Do you work for a tyrannical boss, or have to deal with hostility in the workplace? Does your employer respect the other commitments you have in your life – your children’s soccer games, being home for family dinners or the unpredictability of child care?
Depending on how you’ve answered these questions, you may have some tough decisions to make. If it is the nature of your employer or workplace that is at the root cause of your stress, the answer may be to choose another line of work, or another employer. Do not accept what you can change.
Do you carry the weight of your work commitments to the point where they become a burden? Are you micromanaging your work environment, and working unnecessary overtime that eats into your family time? Do your colleagues get to the office after you and leave before you?
If you answered yes to these questions, the problem may not be your workplace, but rather your approach to work. Part of balancing work and family life is realizing the work habits you developed before having children may not work now.
Learn to prioritize
Time is the most precious commodity parents can give their children. Take an inventory of how you spend your time. Evaluate whether you can delegate tasks, work more efficiently or plan ahead for family events and other family commitments. Make sure your employer understands that while you remain committed to work, your family is the highest priority. Children grow up fast and you will never get back the time you lose sitting at your desk.
Coping with stress:
- Organize You schedule meetings and tasks at work, why not schedule family dinners, reading and playing time at home? Perhaps you can move an hour of work from the office to your home office after your children go to bed.
- Flex your ‘no’ muscle Part of reducing stress in your environment is to avoid overburdening yourself.
- Maintain a sense of humor Seeing the lighter side of stressful situations can break up the stress of the work day, stress you won’t bring home to the family.
- Adapt Take the stress out of stressful situations by embracing challenges and working to resolve them.
- Communicate If your family is suffering from the stress you or your spouse is bringing home from work, you should be the first to know it. Keeping the communication channels open will ensure that you can work to resolve stress at home quickly.
No matter how hard we try, we cannot expect to fully remove stress from our lives. For dual-earning households, the individual stresses of work for both parents is the greatest cause of stress in the home, according to an American Psychological Association-published study.
Stress doesn’t have to be part of your work life, and it certainly doesn’t have to spill over into your home life. By working to reduce stress with the same dedication you apply to other tasks, you can promote harmony at home.