Balancing Work & Family Life Can Be Difficult
If you feel like it’s getting tougher to balance all the competing pressures of life, you’re not alone. More than three of every five workers find it difficult to balance work, life, and family. According to a recent poll released by the Alliance for Marriage, balancing work & family life can be difficult indeed.
The costs of this hazardous imbalance can be steep: poor mental and physical health, low productivity and morale, marital conflict leading to breakdown, and too many kids who don’t spend enough time with Mom and Dad.
In a nutshell, it’s just not healthy, productive, or beneficial for workers to be married to their job, and based on this troubling new data, maybe it’s time to file for divorce from our jobs. We should end this unholy matrimony for the sake of ourselves, our mates, our employers, our kids, and our economy. I’m not suggesting you quit your job, just encouraging you to examine your priorities and if needed take some practical steps to balance the scales of Work and Family. The balance can be achieved.
Tips to Help Balance Work and Family Life
“Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity…” Ephesians 5:15-16
- Understand the importance of drawing a line between work and home. This is the first step in balancing work & family life.
- When you first arrive home from work, give your spouse a big hug and kiss. Then spend some time talking together about how the day went. Don’t do anything else til you do this. Balancing work & family life begins with your spouse.
- Make sure that you don’t use the master bedroom for your home office. Consider making the master bedroom off-limits to computers and televisions. Balancing work & family life means giving each place its own space.
- Find a way to unwind from the office before you walk through the door at home. Balancing work & family life requires some helpful discipline.
– Sit in your car for 10 minutes a block away.
– Stop at a park to jog or walk.
– Work out at a gym for a few minutes
– Listen to an audiobook or music
- Stick to your scheduled work hours. It isn’t fair to your spouse or your kids to work longer than expected. Balancing work & family life requires planned neglect. Turn it off when it is time.
Sure, there may be times when you have to work longer than you planned, just don’t make the extra work hours a daily occurrence.
If your work schedule will temporarily include longer hours for a while, make sure that you have at least one night during the week, and one day during the weekend to spend time together.
Let’s Pray- Father, thank you for Your promise to supply all of our needs. And thank you, Lord, for giving me the desire and the ability to help provide for my family. Help me to give my employer a good day’s work and to work with integrity. Show me how to keep work a servant to our marriage and family, not a master. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.