How A Better Work Life Balance Makes For A Better Dad
Being able to adequately share your time being a dad and a professional is an essential skill for those who are not able to work from home or be fully flexible around childcare and homemaking. The main aim is to be involved in your children and home life as much as is possible, not just on the weekends and vacations, but to be as present as possible at all times. Here are a few vital tips to make your work-life balance work in your favor.
Plan ahead and discuss with your family
As you begin to adjust your work-life balance and do things in a different way, you will need to discuss these changes with your family or significant other. There is no point in making changes that you all cant appreciate and enjoy together. Spend some time planning the changes that you want to make and how these can improve what you do as a dad.
Make proper use of the available time
If you include the vegging in front of the television or weekend afternoon naps as part of the balance, then it's time well spent, but if you're wasting time that could be spent developing relationships and getting involved as a dad, then you'll never achieve a good balance. The demands of parenting are numerous and varied and will need you to make use of all the time you have with growing children as you can. Engage with their own hobbies and pastimes rather than asking them to join you in yours.
Work hard to be able to play hard
One of the best tips to understand and to do so early on in this process is that you will have to work very hard to achieve the kind of balance that we all want. You may need to consider retraining or study to be able to secure a more flexible job or a job higher up the career ladder to provide for the increased income that you will need to fully enjoy the downtime/vacations. Tech courses, courses in leadership and management, and agile delivery management are all trending and will provide for a step up in your career as businesses look to improve strategic management through uncertain economic times.
Allow the entire family to get involved in choosing what to do in the vacations
As children grow up, it is important to allow them the ability to determine and choose what they want to do in their school or university vacations. If you start early enough, then it's possible that this will become a party and parcel of family tradition. The tip is to provide some options for the next vacation that you have already researched and determined availability and affordability, then let the family (read kids) choose what it is they would like to do.
Being able to spend time doing the things that you enjoy and planning for family and parenting time is an essential element of being a great dad. However, what many don't realize is that this is not something that will just happen. It will require planning and communication with your partner and the children themselves to establish and create systems and parenting processes that work for all.