The truth is that many parents fear that due to having a family, they will never be able to build a successful career. However, the fact is that isn’t true – while being a parent can make building a successful career more challenging as your little ones have to come first, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It’s simply about managing your mindset and understanding your priorities, and building a career or starting a small business that fits around yours’ and your family’s changing needs.
Being a full-time working parent can lead to feelings of guilt and stress due to having to divide your time and attention between your family and your career.
However, the key here is to focus on building a plan, getting organized, and finding the right balance between your career and your family and parenting.
The good news is that building a career around family life is easily doable, it’s just a case of making sure that you know what steps to take in order to do so. Below is a guide to some simple ways that you can ensure that both your career and your family flourish.
Say goodbye to the guilt
Instead of dwelling on how while you’re at work you’re not with your children and feeling guilty about it, focus on letting go of that guilt.
Try to consider repositioning your feelings. For instance, imagine how guilty you would feel if you couldn’t afford to put a roof over your children’s heads or how upsetting it would be if you were unable to provide for them everything that they needed.
In an ideal world, no one would have to work and every parent could be with their children on a constant basis. However, the fact is in order to not only survive but thrive, your family needs an income, which is why you need to be able to work.
There’s no reason to feel guilty about that – you are working to support your family, and that’s something to be proud of, not to feel bad about.
Choose a flexible career path
If you want to ensure that you are able to be there for your children as much as possible and as and when they need you, it might be a good idea to find a flexible career path.
There are plenty of careers that offer flexibility in terms of working patterns, it’s just a case of finding the one that’s the best fit for you and your children. A lot of people find that working in sectors such as healthcare can work well, due to the ability to choose various shift patterns.
The care sector is one that a lot of people looking for a solution to a flexible career path opt to go down because it’s an interesting job, the shifts are flexible and the training is fairly minimal.
To learn more about the kinds of opportunities within this sector, check out resources like careasone.com, for instance, and take a look at the rates of pay and the working hours.
Be open with your employer
It’s important that before taking on a new role, that you take the time to be open and honest with your employer about your current situation and needs.
You need to explain to potential employers that your children and family come first and that you are looking for a role that will accommodate your need to be around for your family when you’re needed, and that you would love a role with flexibility allowing you to do this.
You might be anxious about sharing this information with a potential employer, but you would be surprised by how many companies are able to accommodate family needs.
Consider employing yourself
If you struggle to find an employer who is going to be able to meet your requirements for a flexible approach to working, then you might want to consider going down the self-employed route and launching a small business of your own.
If you feel that you have a skill set that would allow you to launch a successful business, then perhaps this could be the perfect route for you to go down. Admittedly, starting a small business isn’t an easy task or one that should be taken lightly, however, if you need a lot of flexibility, it could be the ideal answer for you and your family.
There you have it, a guide to how you can work your career around your family in an easier and less stressful way. It can be hard balancing your family needs and your career, however, it’s important to realize that it is doable, it’s just a case of finding the right steps to take.
