- Version for Working Parents
Word count: 505 words
By Michelle Nichols
If it feels like you’re in a struggle to juggle being successful at work and and as a parent, welcome to the club. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2006, there are more than 50 million working parents with children under the age of 18. You’ve got a lot of company!
JUGGLING LESSONS
As women have poured into the professional workforce over the last few
generations, working fathers and mothers have developed evolving strategies
to deal with this challenge. Here’s a quick history of the evolution
of their juggling strategies.
First, they…
- worked, but then they wanted more results. So then they tried…
- working harder. This brought them better results, but they also got
tired. Then they turned to…
- work smarter, not harder. This strategy was their first try at prioritizing.
It required making tough choices. Meanwhile, many in our culture were
clamoring, “I want it all.” As a compromise, this led to…
- “work-life balance.”
Although work-life balance sounds good, working parents worldwide are realizing that it is the wrong goal, and an impossible one, to try to “balance” their livelihoods and their lives. There are two basic reasons it’s a bad idea – physical limits and relative value.
Physical Limits. No matter how many vitamins you take or assistants you bring on, you still have personal limits because there is only one you. For example, let’s say your schedule is already full, and your boss asks you to take on an extra assignment for the next few months, so you also agree to coach your child’s sports team two nights a week. In theory, you’re in balance, but in reality, you’re overbooked.
Relative Value. Work and family can’t be balanced because they don’t have the same relative value to you. For example, if you lost your job today, you could get another one and you’d soon be back in the workforce. If you lost one of your children today…OK, I’ll wait while you get a tissue, but you get my point. You can’t balance the replaceable with the irreplaceable.
SOLUTION
So what do busy, successful, working parents who love their kids do? Instead
of “balance,” it is wiser to prioritize “family first
and work a close second.” I talk about this new way of thinking
in my new book, Hug Your Kids Today! 5 Key Lessons for Every Working
Parent (www.HugYourKidsToday.com)
If you’ll put “hug (or show my love to) my kids” at the top of your Things to Do list every day, you’re guaranteed that at the end of the day, no matter what else you did that day, at least you got the most important task accomplished. That’s better than balance!
The truth is, no matter how much love you feel toward your children, your most loving intentions don’t really matter. It’s putting your feelings into action, that counts. Now, go hug your kids. And tomorrow, remember to hug them again. Hugs matter!
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Michelle Nichols was the Savvy Selling columnist
for BusinessWeek.com for six years and she spent 20 years in
professional sales and entrepreneurship. She is a speaker, author and
the founder of National Hug Your Kids Day. Her book, Hug Your Kids
Today! 5 Key Lessons for Every Working Parent is available at Amazon.com
and www.hugyourkidstoday.com. She
can be contacted toll-free at (877) 352-9684 or directly at (775) 303-8201.
TAKEAWAYS:
1. Working parents have always struggled to juggle work and family.
2. Forget work-life balance. It’s the wrong goal, and an impossible
one.
3. Instead, prioritize “family first and work a close second.”
Hug your kids, or otherwise show them you love them, every day.