Caring for Children
If you are a father or mother who works outside of the home for pay, you are not alone. Most do. You need day-to-day and formal work flexibility to manage the changing needs of your kids and your job.
Today, only about one in five children (20.7 percent) live in a family with a traditional male breadwinner/female homemaker, according to the Center for American Progress.
In other words, most fathers and mothers work outside of the home for pay.
If you are a parent of a young child, a formal flex plan can help you ease your way back into work after a leave or minimize your commute. Day-to-day work flexibility lets you cover when a caregiver shows up late.
But the need for flexibility to manage your work+life fit continues as your child gets older.
As children grow, the demands placed on parents change as well. A combination of formal and day-to-day flexibility in how, when and where work is done allows parents to manage their work and evolving caregiving responsibilities over their child’s lifetime.
To propose a win-win formal flexible work plan:
Read: Work+Life: Finding the Fit That's Right for You (Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2004). In her first book, FSG/WLF's CEO and founder, Cali Williams Yost, led the effort to show people how to create, negotiate and implement a formal flexible work plan that officially changed how, when or where they worked for a period of time.
To get the day-to-day work flexibility you need:
Read: TWEAK IT: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day (Center Street/Hachette, 2013). With her NEW book, Yost completes the work+life fit toolkit by helping people harness the power of small actions and priorities to create their own foundation of well-being and order every day.
Join: the TWEAK IT Together Community. Bring the learning and support from pages of TWEAK IT to life! Track your "Tweaks of the Week" real-time, share your "tweaks" and learn from others on social media, and connect with the "get-started" wisdom of 50+ personal and career experts.
Related Articles from FSG/WLF:
- Think You Don't Benefit Directly from Childcare? Three "What's In It for Me" That Will Change Your Mind
- How Do I Tell My Boss I'm Pregnant?
- A Guide for Stressed Out Parents
- Work+Life Fit: First Moms, Now Dads...Then, Everyone
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