A few decades back there was a system where the husbands would go out to earn money and wives would take care of the house and kids at home. That was the time when girls were held inferior to boys. Then slowly came a revolution when boys and girls started to gain equal opportunity in all fields. Girls received the same education that boys did and thus the opportunities for girls in career fields also grew. Over time, girls also started working for their earning and became self dependent. And finally there was a time when both the husband and the wife started working and were drawn into this collective societal term, “working parents”. This was a good development in the eyes of society, but it has certainly had its own share of impact on the kids. The major drawback of the situation is that the couples lose out on the time they spend together. The time devoted by them to their house and children has reduced as well. It’s not that the parents have forgotten their responsibilities towards their children, but in the busy schedule they sometimes miss out on some major stages of child care.
There are a lot of simple things that you can do in order to manage both work and child care together effectively. The simplest and most organized way to handle this is to plan all the activities to be done on the next day, on the previous day itself. The important things to be done can be kept on the priority list so that they are not missed out on, in the chaos of the not so important jobs.
When in office there is no possibility to be connected with the kids face to face. Hence, once they get home, working parents should provide full attention and time to the kids. The parents can help the kids in doing their school assignment or projects. They can play together or go for a picnic. This will increase the communication between them. The parents can also ask the children to help them in the household work. This is to make the children understand that it actually gets quite hectic for working parents to do office work and household chores at the same time. It has been noticed that sometimes the children get the feeling of negligence when the parents are not able to give them time due to pressure at work and heavy office hours. Another effectual way to deal with this is to take the kids out for dinners and excursions when you don’t have time to cook after work. This gives you a break and helps you to spend quality time with your kids.
It is understood that after a hectic week, it becomes difficult to handle the irritating situations and that is the most crucial aspect of child care; to deal with them at your worst. But in order to have a bond with the children you must understand their state of mind, and for that you got to stay calm. Children will do mischief, act naughty and play pranks which will not change. Neglecting them at first and shouting at them later can sometimes create distance in the child’s relationship with the working parents. In addition to this sometimes children who are very emotional can take wrong decisions in their life thinking that they have been abandoned by their parents.
Another important aspect of child care is to take care of the health of the children as well as that of their own. Parents should take care of their health so that they can cope up with the double pressure of home and work. They should also take care of the children because they remain alone at home when their parents are working. To take care of the children there are crèches or child care centres these days. Such child care centres are safe and secure places that take good care of your kids and provide them with the necessary love, nourishment and values that they should grow up with. However, if you don’t wish to part with the apple of your eye, use help at home and make sure that you spend a certain number of hours every day with your kid after you get home. Leave work at work, when home just be the parent. Remember, holidays and Sundays should solely be for your kids!
