Working parents

6 tips for working parents
This is how you, as a parent, create more inner peace at work

Sunday May 8, we celebrate Mother's Day. Time to put all hard-working, sweet, caring, and strong mothers, who are always there for their children, in the spotlight and to compliment them for all their efforts! Because every parent knows that combining work and childcare can be intense.

Read time: 2½ minutes | Author: Gunther Malin - Team Lead Marketing Hays Belgium

Therefore these parents can here find some tips which will help improve their work-life balance.

How to maintain a good work-life balance as a parent?

Could you use some help to keep your kids and career in balance? Good news, Hays offers a lot of tips for working parents. Specially for parents working from home, we wrote the article Working from home with kids.

But when you are working at a different place than at home, and you take care of your children before or after working hours, then the following tips might offer some help:

6 tips for working parents

1. Make clear agreements

Make clear agreements with your partner as to who takes care of the children and when. Try to find a good arrangement that is feasible for both of you.

To stay organised, you can use Google Keep, for example, to share to-do lists or agendas.

2. If you are single, good planning skills are even more important.

If you don't have family, friends or neighbours to look after your little ones, consider a babysitting service, a cleaning service or a meal delivery service that fits your budget.

3. A trusted nursery or childminder

For parents with babies: find a nursery or a childminder you trust with your little one and ask for updates or photos throughout your day. This will give you more peace of mind at work.

4. Communicate openly with your manager

Communicate openly with your manager from the start. For example, ask for more flexibility when you unexpectedly have to pick up your sick child at school.

5. Say yes to no.

By this we mean that you should not jam-pack your schedule, which will overburden you after a while. So don't put too much pressure on yourself to be the perfect parent, that wants to do everything themselves. Asking for a cleaning helper or ordering a meal once in a while does not make you a bad parent.

6. Look for other working parents

Last but not least, look for other working parents who can relate to you. Parenting creates a bond through the typical stories you can share with each other. It shows that you are not the only parent who sometimes struggles to combine children with a career.

Also check out our guide: Working & Lining in the Netherlands, because for all parents: you will find useful information that has to do with children. For example, our guide explains the school system in the Netherlands and answers your questions about child benefit. In addition, the guide contains a lot of practical information, which is useful for anyone who lives and works in the Netherlands. For instance, health care, commuting, living expenses, taxes, and so on.

So, to sum up, it is possible to find a healthy balance between your personal and professional life as a working parent. Start applying these tips so that you can take the reins yourself and have more inner peace during your work. And do not forget:

“There is no such thing
as a perfect parent.
So just be a real one.“

Read more about working from home with children or, what if you just don't have that much work motivation anymore?