Working Parent Burnout

No one said parenting was going to be easy. No one has a one size fits all plan for being a successful parent.

The reality is that parenting is hard. Everyday is different and presents us with a unique set of challenges to overcome. Now add to that, the responsibility of being an engaged, productive employee and the stakes just doubled.

Let’s start by setting some realistic expectations around what is humanly possible. It is normal for parents to experience stress. It is normal for our kids to cause stress. It is normal to have pressures at work. 

What is not normal is feeling chronic stress, debilitating fatigue, physical exhaustion, and losing our ability to cope with the stress in a healthy productive manner. Mass numbers of working parents are screaming and shouting, “I can’t take it anymore!”

What can leaders do?

1. You can continue to avoid it. Disregard the hundreds of thousands of research papers and statistics around what helps employee engagement. Just keep your head down and don’t rock the boat.
2. You can withdraw and run away from the problem. Maybe you move to an organization that does support working parents and you just stay comfortable in your safe and supported environment.
3. You can get angry and irritable. Continue punishing the working parents in your organization for not doing their job. Stick to the old ways of leading and continue to search out workhorses.
4. You can look for simple ways to support your working parents through increasing resources and decreasing stressors.

It all starts with awareness. One cannot change something that we don’t acknowledge.  For many of us we don’t want to acknowledge this because we just don’t know how to support working parents. Well you have come to the right place. The Working Parent Institute’s mission is to provide resources and support tools to all working parents regardless of their corporate culture.

All it takes is one brave person to step out and share their story and others will come and link arms. Lets stop allowing the stress and fear to paralyze us from taking action in something that is not only going to positively impact your organization but will also positive impact families as well as make for a bright future for our kids.

1. Gather a few working parents at lunch for 20-30 minutes
2. Give them the attached working parent burn out survey
3. Have them share some of their experiences and frustrations
4. Take notes so that you can find common themes
5. Use one of many resources to help start supporting them today.

Resources include:

• Parent Strengths Assessment
• Working Parent Wednesday FREE Group coaching
• Blog
• Podcast
• Bring us in to teach our Positive Parent Foundations Course

Research we use to support this post contents: https://wellness.osu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2022/05/OCWO_ParentalBurnout_3674200_Report_FINAL.pdf