The Challenges of Work-Life Balance for Families

The Challenges of Work-Life Balance for Families

Parents with young children often face challenges balancing work and family demands. Several challenges working families face can influence how professionals create trusting relationships with families. First, working parents often have less time to spend with their children. Establishing routines, communicating effectively, and providing emotional support can make it difficult (Kelliher, Richardson & Boiarintseva, 2019). For instance, when a manager tries to allocate time for a one-on-one meeting with a working parent, the parent may have to juggle childcare responsibilities and work demands. Second, working families often have less financial stability than families where all adults are able to stay home. This can lead to stress and anxiety about being able to provide for basic needs (Simon Sinek, 2016). Money worries can also make it difficult to focus on parenting and family life. For example, a parent may be preoccupied with work during the day and come home too tired to spend quality time with their children.

There are several ways that professionals can create or maintain collaborative relationships with busy families. Managers can use family-friendly policies, such as flexible working hours or on-site child care, to support working parents. In this case, they can also build a connection with families by creating opportunities for two-way communication. This can be done through regular check-ins, family events, or parent-teacher conferences. Bernik (2021) shows policies and practices supporting family engagement in early childhood education. For instance,  the author provides suggestions on ways to reduce paperwork and make parent-teacher conferences more family-friendly.

I personally maintain a school-work-life balance by setting aside time each day to focus on my work and my family. One way I do this is by getting up early to work on school projects before my children wake up. I also try to schedule regular family time into our weeks, such as family movie night or game night. It helps me to stay motivated and organized.

References

Bernik, M. (2021). Impact of work-family balance results on employee work engagement within the organization: The case of Slovenia. PLOS ONE. Retrieved October 18, 2022, from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0245078

Kelliher, C., Richardson, J., & Boiarintseva, G. (2019). All of the work? All of life? Reconceptualizing work‐life balance for the 21st century. Human Resource Management Journal, 29(2), 97-112.

Simon Sinek. (2016, November 2). Most leaders don’t even know the game they’re in | Simon Sinek. YouTube. Retrieved October 18, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyTQ5-SQYTo

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As is discussed in the course text, balancing the demands of work, parenting, and family is a challenging—but necessary—task for most families. In a fast-paced environment, it can be difficult to connect with parents and families as a professional in order to create a meaningful and trusting relationship. However these relationships are critical for effective collaboration with families in order to increase successful outcomes for children.

Step 1
Prepare:

Read Chapters 2 and 7 of the course text.
Watch the three-minute video Work-Life BalanceLinks to an external site..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPR3o6Hnf2g&feature=youtu.be

Step 2
Write: In your initial post

Explain one or two challenges that working families face and how these challenges can influence how professionals create trusting relationships with families. Be sure to use the text or outside source to support your thinking.
Identify one strategy professionals can use to create or maintain collaborative relationships with busy families and share an image or link to a website that demonstrates a visual of this strategy.
Reflect on your personal work-life balance and share your perspective on how you maintain your school-work-life balance to stay motivated and organized.