Work-family balance is an important issue for many parents. This study examines how young Quebec parents cope with the daily challenges of balancing responsibilities and reminds us of the importance of adopting personalized strategies.
Morin, Fortier & Deschenaux conducted 49 interviews with parents with at least one preschool child, for a total of 42 women and 11 men (including 4 couples), with an average age of 33 years. The questions focused on the parents’ educational, professional, and residential backgrounds as well as their family and relationship histories. The questions also aimed to learn more about their values and priorities.
The results show that work-family balance is a form of daily commitment for young parents. The participants described their daily efforts to cope with what they perceived to be too many demands and to find a balance between their work and family life.
The organization of time is also a major issue for young parents, with a framework often imposed by the children’s schedule (e.g., school or daycare). The people interviewed said that they adopted – more or less consciously – different strategies to balance their different areas of life (e.g., family, work, couple, friendships, personal time), such as:
- Adjusting their work schedules to limit the time the children spend in childcare (e.g., one parent does the morning routine, while the other provides the ride home) or, conversely, to maximize the time the whole family spends together.
- Changing their career path, either by simplifying it, postponing it, or interrupting it.
- Choosing to spend less time alone or as a couple to spend more time together as a family (e.g., at mealtimes), or being creative in finding such time (e.g., very early in the morning, before the children get up).
- Using people outside the immediate family for certain tasks (e.g., grandparents, babysitters, cleaning staff).
Establishing strategies to improve family life is one thing but putting them into practice can be difficult and require adjustments to make it work. And each strategy has its advantages… and disadvantages!
According to this study, the addition of a child can also change the meaning of work: for the provider, the new family obligations increase the importance given to work, while at the same time subordinating it to the needs of the family and children, which are considered a priority. In terms of gender, the results indicate that women continue to make most of the concessions related to children and family management. Finally, the study highlights the importance of policies and programs to support work-family balance, including parental leave and access to affordable, quality childcare. Participants would also like to see society and businesses place more value on work-life balance. CDPs can also support their clients in balancing work and family life by helping them identify their needs and the different ways to meet them, and by relieving the pressure of trying to achieve a perfect balance.
Responses
Fantastic article summary posted to the library today. This, along with another summary https://cdpc-cedc.ca/library/familial-influences-for-international-students/ are shared today to close out May, which focused on career development and families, aligned to International Day of Families (May 15) and the UN’s Global Day for Parents which is tomorrow – June 1st.