Working Parents and Their Little Challenges!

When we were little, we were taught that “Work is worship”, In the modern era, the working parents are worshipping day and night. I guess they have become quite religious.

No matter how many hurdles we face ourselves, we want to give an ideal atmosphere of love, concern, care and peace to our child and henceforth, we work hard for this. If a family wants to fulfill the basic requirement easily, then both parents have to work hand-in-hand, to be able to take care of materialistic needs. Now, comes the question where should the child be kept in such a case. Who will take care of the child? As a co-partner in life, this responsibility must also be shared by both the parents on an equal basis. Parenting style needs two important elements – Parental responsiveness and managing the demand . Apart from this there are several other little challenges which working parents muddle-up with in their day to day life. Every problem comes with a solution as there is dawn after dusk. This tips may prove helpful to those who often overlook their child in their quest to be a superman/ superwoman; those who are aware of their problematic situation but can`t help it. I know working parents don’t have much time to read as your kid might be whining in the background, let me quickly list down the little challenges which the parent face because of their little ones

1. Making alternative arrangement for kids:

When the situation comes that both the parents would be working then the question comes who will take care of the child in such a case. Either you send your child to a daycare at an early stage; which is yet not advisable as your child may get prone to health related problems when going outside before the age group of two years; or you call some grand parents to take care of the child; which again cannot be continued for a longer run. You cannot leave your child at the mercy of his/her nanny or granny for a longer period. This is a pragmatic situation which must be faced by many of us.

2. Parental Involvement in school Activities :

Once your child starts going to school, does not mean at all that you are free from your child. Now, you need to be more cautious, more concerned and more alert as well because earlier your child was inside the home in a protective environment made by you but now as he/she starts going outside, you have to teach them all the rules and regulations day by day. But, as you are working, you don`t know whether your child is reaching home on time or not. There has to be someone even at home to guide them after school hours. You should be concerned about what they are learning at school. Apart from this, being working it often becomes problem for you to attend parents-teacher meeting when it is scheduled on weekdays. You don`t get enough time to look at your child daily growth. All you want to know is his/her grade in final examination but ideally, you should help them in climbing the ladder of growth step by step.

3. Leisure Time :

As you are a parent and that also working, no doubt, you want to spend your leisure time with yourself as well , but being a responsible parent, we are often not allowed to do so. At many times, we find ourselves in a dilemma, whether to go on a team outing or for a picnic with the kids. We often try to make our child understand by mesmerizing them with gifts and chocolates but this is not an ideal way. Even on weekends, working parents are not able to spend their leisure time with their child due to several reasons

• There may be a new product launch
• A production deployment might be scheduled
• If you are doing on call support, your weekend is completely screwed up. You can neither go out nor you can spend quality time with your kid at home
• If you are working in the real estate or retail industry, then your weekend might be busier than the weekday.
• If you just did a night shift in the previous week, then it will take time to recover on Saturday

The list is endless. These are again the obstacles which prevent you in spending quality time with your kid.

4. Work From Home :

Work from home is often looked as an easy option when it comes to parenting. But there are times when you have to meet the deadlines and your child is not allowing you to work within the stipulated time. Already you have chosen to work from home according to your needs and then also if you are not being able to meet your official requirements, you find yourself in an embarrassing situation and you cannot make an excuse all the time. Moreover, you cannot blame your child for this as the little one has his own set of problem and is ignorant of your problem. Being at home, you get to indulge in both house-hold activities as well as official activities at times which is again not an easy feat. People in creative domain like media and advertising often need silent environment to concentrate, think, imagine and write the contents but being at home, they don`t get such an atmosphere which increase their level of difficult while working from home.

5. Absence of Personal Bonding :

Personal bonding is commonly found missing in between children and working parents. Due to the lack of time and attention, the child gets closer to electronic gadgets rather than their parents. In a situation like this, children gets detached from their parents at personal level, as they don`t find their parents at times when they need them and now as they are growing up, sometimes, they make a pre-conception in their mind that their parents don`t love them, they have the money to give them but not the time. It actually happens in most of the elite class families or upper class societies where the parent comes after the child sleeps and leaves before he awakes. Although, the parents work for the livelihood of their child but sometimes, they are misunderstood by their own kid.

6. Nutrition :

It is one of the important factors in a child`s growth,which helps in his/her development both mentally and physically. So, from any aspect, nutrition cannot be avoided but as we are talking from the aspect of working parents, this “Nutrition” factor often gets overlooked. Due to the lack of time, working mothers don`t put extra effort in making fresh and nutritional dishes for their child. They simply provide what is easy and instant. As we know about the case of Maggi instant noodles, we can imagine what a loss we have made to our child and to ourselves as well. Simply depending on packaged food materials containing lots of preservatives in place of nutrients is not advisable from any aspect. Frozen foods are also not good from health aspect for our child but working mothers often take the help of refrigerators in storing food for their child which is again harmful in their growing stage.

Well, the list of problem is endless. Now, let me give these small suggestions which may prove helpful to the working parents if followed sincerely:

• There should be flexi-working hours, especially for feeding mothers having infants at home.
• Opening a crèche in company`s tech park is an intelligent idea; so that your child would not be much far away from you. This will ensure the mental peace in working parents.
• Corporate tie-ups with the day care and offer some discounts in day care to encourage parents to keep their kid in a well maintained day care.
• Hiring a nutritionist in a group of four-five team members having kids can be helpful and cost-effective as well for all the working parents who don`t have time to make a nutritional chart for their kiddos.
• Companies like Flipkart have already introduced many new HR policies keeping in mind the need and comfort of working mothers like 6 months paid leave for all new others so that they can spend quality time with their kids. These are the highlights from Flipkart’s policy to support at the time of maternity
  1. After returning to work, they can get four months of flexible working hours and can continue on the same job.
  2. Can avail an extended leave of up to 12 months means you are getting pay and that also while a career break-up.
  3. Up to 600 per day transport reimbursement before going on maternity leave.
  4. Maternity packages from hospital tie-ups, women employees can claim higher maternity benefit, i.e., up to Rs. 80,000 for c-section and Rs. 65,000/- for normal delivery.
  5. Crèche support through tie-ups with day-care centers where they share on 50:50 basis for children upto 4 years.
  6. Maternity care program are running where you get advices wellness coach on work-life balance, parenting, family health, etc.
  7. There must be mother`s room for personal care.
  8. You can celebrate joys by baby shower or by gifting basket loaded with good

The online retailers give a tough competition to each other, when it comes to giving offers/discounts. They even copy each other in the advertisements too. The working environment can become more conducive to working parent if the e-tailers copy each other in their employee friendly policies too.