There was a time when men used to be the sole breadwinners in the house and women were the homemakers and used to have the responsibilities of upbringing and nurturing of the children. Cut to the modern era where it is a common scenario that both the partners in the household are working and are financially independent.

In the hustle bustle of daily life, the balance between work and home becomes hard to strike when both partners have to juggle between the household responsibilities as couples and parents and their roles as professionals in the workplace.

Challenges

• No Couple Time– In a household where both partners are working, it gets difficult to spend quality time with one’s spouse. There is no time to even discuss how each other’s day went. As soon as one arrives home there is dinner to be taken care of, home works to be finished and other prior commitments.
• Time Management– Running late for a meeting because of a last-minute hiccup at home? Not able to make it on time for a poem recital because a meeting ran over time? These are some common scenarios where working parents might feel guilty that they are not able to manage everything as there’s too much on the plate.
• Disturbance in Sleep– Be it late PPT preparations or an unwell child and other various factors, it takes a huge toll on sleep patterns of working parents. There’s constantly some worry keeping them up at night.
• Productivity at Work– Our mind starts wandering at the workplace regarding the conflicts between our daughters or the remarks made by the teacher at the PTA Meeting. It hampers productivity at the workplace and creates a barrier in concentrating and giving our 100% to our tasks.
• No Personal Time– As both partners try to juggle various responsibilities; it leaves no time to pursue one’s own interests, hobbies, and passions.

How to Strike Personal-Professional Balance

• Compartmentalize– Developing rituals that improve our frame of mind when we arrive home is important. This may mean spending some time by ourselves in order to put a distance between ourselves and the day’s stresses as we have a tendency to redirect our frustration or anger regarding workplace onto our spouse or children.
• Get the help of family and friends when it gets overwhelming- Having someone babysit for some time, outings with common friends might help in getting personal and couple time.
• Involve the family in household chores- One partner doing all the household chores would get overwhelming and hassled so to make things easier and also to include some quality family style involve the partner and kids to make the grocery list or help in shopping. This would kill two birds at the same time.
• Keep your word- If you have promised to have a dinner date every month or take a vacation once a year then try to schedule, plan and manage all commitments in such a manner that these promises can be fulfilled. Such little things matter in the long run.
• Spend weekends and holidays on recharging your batteries- Go out for lunch with family or friends instead of making meals at home. Include rejuvenation time. We all need some personal time so that we are well rested to tackle the coming week head on.

Image credit- Gembamarketing.com