Balancing work and family responsibilities in favor of your children

 By Dickson Tumuramye

As years go by, balancing work, life, and family responsibilities seem to becoming an uphill task. How well these responsibilities are balanced directly affects one's quality of life, work, and our family members. It seems women are good at multitasking but this is not easy for men.

Conversely, there is also an increasing percentage of men neglecting their mandate to provide for their families, forcing women to plug the gap. Women inevitably take up the responsibility of family breadwinner as well as raising the children.

In regard to parents working outside the home, owing to heavy load and tight deadlines, many work overtime, sometimes on weekends, and others carry work home. There are parents who work at distant stations. These factors contribute to work-related stress and fatigue.

In addition, parents have social engagements, for example, patronizing bars, or church after work and return home late. 

We know that few institutions provide facilities such as daycare and breastfeeding centers aimed at the inclusion of working women and mothers. Other workplaces/employers deny women full maternity leave of three months as stipulated in Uganda's employment act.

All this results in little or no time with family, reducing one's availability in attending to one's spouse or children. The parents are absent emotionally even when they are physically present in homes. Some children complain that their parents don't give them any time, but prioritize work or projects. In such projects, they don’t even involve children during implementation and supervision.

This leads to little or no bonding between parents and their children. The children, therefore, develop poor behavior because their parents are unavailable to monitor them. Others take advantage to go and meet their friends who influence them into bad habits. It is also not easy for character development when you are an absent parent.

We need to rethink our parenting struggles as we juggle work, life, and family. As parents in taking care of our families, how best can we share the responsibilities of raising children in a way that can prevent child neglect? Never fail to take your leave days to be with your family. You can lose a job anytime and get a better one but this may not be the case with your family or a child.

As a couple, plan how to work out roles together. This also helps when one of you has little time at home and would like to go for further studies or business trips among others.

At home, reduce your time with gadgets and give quality to your family. Use weekends well when you are fully available to be with the children to compensate for the busy weekdays.

You don't need to be everywhere at the expense of your family: you can cut off some of these engagements.

Plan certain activities ahead of time and where necessary involve the children and spouse. This creates responsibility and accountability.

Promote effective and consistent communication with your family members. You can share your schedule with them so that they get to know when you are available or not. In all, what we are looking at is raising children without feeling neglected.

The writer is the Executive Director of Hope Regeneration Africa, parenting coach, marriage counselor, and founder – Men of Purpose mentorship programme.

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Dickson Tumuramye is also a passionate speaker on:

#Positive parenting

#Marriage and family

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