3 Tips to Creating Work-Life Balance as a Family

For the past year, families have experienced overwhelming emotional drainage, physical exhaustion, and stress. As a result, people are unable to meet constant work, business, and school demands simultaneously. Some families have both or one parent at home working full-time jobs while the children are learning virtually. Other families have one or both parents working outside the house while the children are in a hybrid learning environment., It is hard to create and maintain balance when the entire family is experiencing burnout.

As working moms, maintaining a good balance between personal and career life has been an impossible task.

Families want to be in an atmosphere that is relaxed and stress-free. How do they, however, create one when everyone is burned out? How do they maintain balance when they cannot meet work, business, and school demands at home, in the same space?

What is Work-life Balance?

To create a comfortable work-home life balance, you need to know what balance entails. Work-life balance means creating an equilibrium or middle ground between one’s personal life and career life demands and having the right personal and professional life without allowing one to affect or infringe the other. The importance of having a personal life and a professional life cannot be over-emphasized. Having a work-life balance is a choice to create compensation for you and your family to have emotionally and physically healthy and meaningful lives. It is not easy, but it is possible by prioritizing what is most important to you and your family and simplifying your family’s life.

Benefits of Having a Work-life Balance

As stated earlier, the importance of Work-Life Balance cannot be over-emphasized for many reasons. Some of these benefits include:

• Improved family bond: Having a work-life balance improves how your family develops and thrives today and in the future. It also enhances the love and quality time you spend with your children. When you create and maintain a work-life balance, you are more likely to have the physical and emotional energy to give your family the attention they need. Differentiating your personal life from career life enables you to properly set up times that will conveniently allow you to spend the required adequate time for the family.

• Improved physical health: As the popular saying goes, “Health is wealth.” Most often than not, people forsake their health in trying to attain their career goals. Although this might not be a terrible thing to do, it could be detrimental to one’s health. By creating and maintaining a work-life balance, you can prevent burnout or other health problems like high blood pressure and hypertension. Burnout is a pervasive issue where there is no work-life balance. It arises when there is immense pressure on a person, leading to chronic stress. This stress could be caused by various things, from excessive workloads to hectic days and nights. Incorporate exercises and light workout sessions into your schedule. Always remember that only a healthy person has the opportunity of living a wealthy life.

• Improved mental health: Having a work-life balance helps keep your sanity in check and allows you to have peace of mind. As the adage goes: “healthy body, healthy mind.”

• Enhanced Productivity: Maintaining a work-life balance will help boost productivity both at work and at home. Having the right work-life balance allows you to work effectively both at home and at work.

To maintain a work-life balance, there are necessary steps you must take. You can attain the right balance as a family following these three ways:

1. Normalize Family Time

To create the right work-life balance, you must set adequate family time. Once your work hours are over, make sure that you put all work items entirely aside and dedicate your time to focusing on the family. When the constant demands of projects, meetings, and other work-related tasks consume you, you may not have intentional time with your family. Take time to discuss what day and time work best for everyone. During family time, come up with fun activities that will interest everyone. The activities can include game night, hiking, walking, riding bikes, getting some ice cream, or any other family tradition.

Family relationship is significant and maintaining the right work-life balance helps strengthen the family bond.

2. Negotiate parental shifts

Deciding to share the parental load during the week will reduce anxiety and stress on one parent and the children. As a working mom of 4 young girls, I have noticed that whenever I sit down with my five-year-old during her school lessons, she is more focused and willing to do her work, as I assist her with school work she may have trouble with. However, having to do this with all four of my children and keeping up with my job demands could be overwhelming. It is much easier to share the parental load with my husband than carry it alone. Sharing the school’s parental load includes designating days and times where parents can take shifts so that the burden is not on the mother or father solely for the entire week. For instance, the mother can negotiate Monday and Tuesday to focus on virtual learning with the children and her work or business. At the same time, the father concentrates solely on his work or business. On Wednesday and Thursday, the father will negotiate that he will focus on virtual learning with the children and his job or business, while the mother concentrates solely on her work or business. On Friday, both the mother and father can negotiate, taking turns to assist the children with virtual learning and their work or business. They may decide that the mother will take the morning hours of virtual studies to help their children, while the father will take the afternoon hours or vice versa. Time shifts allow both the mother and father to focus on their work while also having an excellent relationship with the children. It reduces the overwhelming stress of only one parent with the constant daily demand of work or business and parental load.

3. Reorganize Household Responsibilities

In addition to the constant demands of work or business and school, our homes need to be cleaned and maintained; meals need to be planned and cooked; laundry needs to be done, and our lawn needs grooming. There is an endless list of duties that are mandatory to complete. We must include the maintenance of home life in our work-life balance by reorganizing household responsibilities. Reorganizing household responsibilities can involve dividing responsibilities amongst each family member and hiring outside help to complete other duties. Creating a work-life balance is a choice that you and your family must make, and the decision to hire help may not be an easy one but may be an essential one. Getting help can be a family member coming into your home to watch the children as you clean specific areas in your home. It may also be hiring a cleaning service to clean particular locations in your home that you would not be able to clean throughout the week. Sit down with your family to reorganize the household responsibilities so that all the household demands are not under the ownership of one person.

Although creating a work-life balance for your family may appear challenging, it has a ton of benefits to you personally and with your family in the long run. It is important to note that there is no perfect work-life balance. Just creating the right balance that works for you and the family is enough. Create the work-life balance your family needs and trust the process.

For more tips and inspiration to create work-life balance for your family, subscribe and listen to The Latika Vines Show – the work-life balance podcast for working moms. Each week, the host Latika Vines shares practical and immediate ways to create the balance you need. Learn more at https://www.visionary-initiatives.com/thelatikavinesshow