Strategies for Balancing work and family

STRATEGIES FOR BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY LIFE

Introduction

It is inevitable that juggling work and family life will be one of a person 's demanding experiences . The rationale for having a job is not only to have a livelihood , achieve personal satisfaction in the expression of his abilities and trainings , and receive his remuneration and perks on the side . Preparation for family stability to be able to provide and thus create an atmosphere of care , for bachelors /maidens , is also the foremost and logical reason for having a job . However , the thin

br thread that separates between the two polarities becomes blurred , and there lies the tension that pulls a person in different directions . The Center for Mediation and Dispute Resolution opens its website with the following quote : Our life is one giant balancing act ( HYPERLINK "http /www .cmdronline .com /workshops .htm http /www .cmdronline .com /workshops .htm ' Perhaps , no person will ever disagree with that statement . The goal then is to know how to do the balancing act , to gain competencies in achieving a rewarding flourishing kind of life that holds work in one hand , while maintaining a well-nurtured and healthy family on the other hand . The array of questions that confront couples or families with this dilemma is quite limitless . To address this matter , the following questions are entertained and tackled : What is the definition of dual career ? What are the problems and challenges that families meet while doing this balancing act of maintaining a job and tending a family ? Finally , what are the strategies to be implemented that will successfully balance both work and family

Definition

Dual-career couples are understood as parents /couples who are not simply both working , but employed in jobs that demand a high level of commitment (Hester and Dickerson , 1998 . This may also occur in families where only one spouse has the outside work and does this kind of dual career . Throughout this , the term dual career ' and work and family life ' refer to the same thing , whether they occur in both working spouses , or in single spouse-working family units . This arrangement of a family where both parents work and at the same time attend to the needs of the family to maintain its wholeness is quite a challenging , if not an exhausting set up . For how can both parents be working full-time in their respective jobs while being full-time parents to their children in the same excellent capacity ? This trend of dual career families came into vogue for a number of possible reasons one of those is the pressure of keeping up with the fast-paced high technology 21st century . It is said that more and more couples nowadays are adapting to this kind of family set up . The lure of this system lies in its deemed compensation in the form of monetary rewards , high social status because of the impression it gives like high levels of career responsibility ' and the parents ' investment of their time and energy (Johnson et al , 1979

Problems...