Parenting and Work
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21st, February 2013
An article by Bianchi titled “Changing Families, Changing Workplaces,” explores the implications parents face while trying to balance work and family life. This reveals that parents have limited time with their families because of too much work. This case is aggravated by little pay for lower middle-class workers, which forces both parents to take up jobs, in order to meet the needs of their families (Bianchi, 2011). Another article “Single Mothers: The Impact of Work on Home and the Impact of Home on Work” by McFadden and Robin, is about a study to establish the job satisfaction and home satisfaction of single mothers in the United States, and generally, the challenges these face at their workplace. In this study, single mothers reported high stress levels due to lack of a perfect balance between family and work. This is mainly due to financial problems, single parenting, and challenges at their work places (McFadden & Robin, 2003). Like chapter 13 “Parenting and Working” in Brooke’s ‘The Process of Parenting,” these articles have addressed ways through which parents can make parenting and working effective, depending on their circumstances, and family structures. All talk about importance of company policies, which can help make balancing family and work easier for employees.
In dual families, couples can use various ways to buffer the effects of stress and challenges emanating from balancing between parenting and working. These should clarify their roles and expectations. Communication is key in relationships, therefore, if these share their career aspirations, they will identify their conflicting goals, and help them compromise, for a working dual-worker relationship. These should also set their priorities right. Since these have clarified their roles and expectations, they will have found a common on what matters more to them. They will then prioritize this, and this will help them not break because of work-family challenges. In addition, if these parents develop process skills, they will counter most challenges that are related to role overload. For single mothers, their employers can help them solve this by providing them with flexible working hours. Since these have to take care of their children on their own, both their work and children are important, yet these require much attention, which is challenging for one person to do. Therefore, flexible working hours might be the only solution for single parents.
Different work places have different ways of accommodating parental needs. A health care facility in my local community is known to support parenting and accommodate it. First, married employees enjoy parental leaves. Also, when their children get sick, these are granted time-off to attend to them. Maternity leaves are granted to expectant employees, and these are paid. Sick leaves during pregnancy are also granted. Generally, this institution embraces flexibility for caretaking responsibilities of parents.
References
Bianchi, S. (2011). Changing Families, Changing Workplaces. The Future of Children, 21:2
(2011), 15-36. Retrieved from http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/21_02_02.pdf
McFadden, J. & Robbin, R. (2003). Single Mothers: The Impact of Work on Home and the
Impact of Home on Work. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 21:1 (2003), 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.natefacs.org/JFCSE/v21no1/v21no1Robbins.pdf
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