Yikes, I need 70 hours a week to fit it all in!

I missed the deadline for completing this article. Why am I telling you this I hear you ask?

Because the reason that I was delayed is intrinsically linked to the subject of what I’m writing about. Last week Dawn Savidge wrote in response to an article highlighting the challenge that many parents face as they attempt to balance work and raising their children. (You can read that article here. )This has significantly increased post pandemic as many more people are working from home with their children there too. What was a response to a global crisis has become a norm for many parents who, according to this survey, are feeling increasingly depressed, stressed and financially challenged.

The pressures of modern life can feel overwhelming – the need (and desire) to work, wanting to ensure children have great opportunities to make memories, the rising cost of living including childcare, the demands of ‘normal’ weeks filled with requests from school, clubs, meeting up with friends not to mention boring but vital life admin like shopping, cooking, cleaning…

I’ve been so grateful to have jobs that have allowed me to be flexible – I’ve been able to work from home as well as travel to be with people / in shared office spaces. Being at home means I’ve been able to put a load of washing on at a coffee break and hang it up at lunchtime, I’ve been able to flex in order to take PE kits (or the countless other things my children forget!) in to school. As Dawn pointed out in her article, working from home has the potential to increase productivity and I can testify that that has been true for me so this is by no means a call to end working from home.

But there is an increasing cohort of parents and carers in the UK who, alongside the ‘normal’ juggle of work and raising family, face additional pressures as they also need to advocate for adequate school provision for their children