3 Tips for Balancing Life and Career When Starting a New Family

Whether you’re a new parent heading back to work after taking a few months of leave time, or you stayed home with your children for several years before returning to the workforce, getting back into the swing of things at work can be tough.

Balancing your professional responsibilities and family obligations can be challenging. You might feel you simply don’t have enough time to get everything done.

Furthermore, you can often feel you’re not able to give your “all” to either your family or your job. Instead, you’re just trying to do what you can. You may be concerned about your performance at work slipping. Alternatively, you may be worried that you’re going to disappoint your family in some way.

However, plenty of parents adjust to balancing both work and family in a way that feels right for their household. You can, too. Here are a few tips to help you manage all of your obligations.

Split Responsibilities With Your Partner

First, it’s important to communicate effectively with your partner about how you will split up parenting responsibilities and other domestic tasks. While you might not split everything exactly 50/50, you want to make sure that your individual “workloads” at home are fair to both parties.

Sit down with your partner to discuss all the household tasks that need to be tackled and decide who will take care of each task. If you have a little wiggle room in your budget, you may want to consider hiring other people to help out in these areas.

For instance, before you go back to work, you will need to work out a fair childcare plan with your partner as well. Will one of you be responsible for childcare during the day because you’ll be working from home? Or will you need to come up with another plan because you’ll both be working outside the home?

This is where the rest of your social network comes in. If your parents are retired, you may want to talk to them about babysitting while you’re at work. Paying for childcare is also an option, but when the costs can be quite high, it’s best to ask family who might be interested in helping out first.

Communicate Openly With Your Boss

Talking to your boss or manager about your circumstances can help you get the accommodations you need at work. For example, you may be able to work out a flexible arrangement in which your boss allows you to work from home sporadically. You might also be able to request that meetings be scheduled mid-day in case you need to come in late or leave early due to a family emergency.

What if you’re self-employed? In that case, you’re in charge of managing your own client roster and workload. You may want to lengthen your general project delivery timeline in order to give yourself more flexibility during the week. You could also consider raising your rates or price points so that you can take on fewer clients.

Consider New Commitments Carefully

Are you often asked to volunteer for projects at work that don’t have anything to do with your core responsibilities? If you’re already feeling overwhelmed, you don’t have to feel guilty for saying no.

Be realistic about how much time you can lend to outside commitments. When your plate is full, you don’t have to keep adding tasks to your to-do list. Give yourself some grace and go easy on yourself during this adjustment period.

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Are you having trouble balancing work and family? Talking to a therapist can help. Reach out to us today to discuss your options for scheduling your first session.

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