Ann Bailey
“[P]arents should view the costs of child care as an investment in their career,” stated an article on Time-Management Strategies for Working Parents. This was the final sentence in an article from a major media source that offered “advice for fostering a healthy work-life balance, properly managing your time, and the coping with the benefits and drawbacks of being a working parent.”
Is it just me, or is there something seriously messed up when someone’s children and their care is supposed to be primarily viewed through a lens of “what’s good for my career.” I kept reading the article over and over and that last paragraph in particular trying to figure out how the writer could be so cavalier and blind to the needs of children, but recognizing, too, that this unfortunately IS the way that too many parents view the world.
Let me go on record: I do understand that there are circumstances where women with children still at home must work; there is no other choice. But read the research. Please, read the research and understand what you are giving up and what you may be setting in motion when you make the choice (for whatever reason) to build a career or to bring in that “extra money” for the things you may, or may not need.
Click here to see a list of just some of the studies that are out there on this topic.