Friday May 17, 2013
I get asked a lot about work-life balance and I understand fully how hard it can be to find a comfortable balance between our work life, our home life and our personal life. There just never seem to be enough hours in a day or a week to do it all. And yet I think we all know intuitively that it is usually our families who suffer from our lack of time, or at least our lack of planning and prioritizing.
I recently read several articles, interviews and blog posts from successful CEO's and entrepreneurs who seem to have found several keys or principles that have helped them achieve better work-life balance. From Virgin Airlines' Richard Branson to Ryan Smith, a young entrepreneur and co-founder of Qualtrics, these committed dads and successful business leaders offer their advice to all of us who struggle with striking that important balance between employment, family and personal life.
More on work-life balance:
Photo of Richard Branson courtesy of Getty Images.
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Monday May 13, 2013
Our family has long been interested in genealogy, or finding our family ancestry. Maybe it is an innate desire to know more about our ancestors and their lives and times. Perhaps it is just curiosity. Or maybe we feel drawn in some way to those who make up our family line. In any case, genealogy can be a fun family pastime.
There are lots of resources at About.com and elsewhere to help your family get started with genealogy. I recently posted an article by Marissa Joansford on how to inspire our children to join with us in seeking out our family ancestry. In addition, Kimberly Powell, our About.com Guide to Genealogy, has a great article about teaching kids how to be "ancestor detectives."
The FamilySearch site, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is one of the best free sites available for starting on your family research. You can start with basic information about a deceased relative and tap into the LDS Church's vast databases of vital records and see what you can find.
This family hobby can be a little addictive, but it is really fun and rewarding to learn more about your ancestors and where you fit into your family tree!
More on Genealogy from About.com
Image © 2002-2007 Kimberly Powell. Licensed to About.com.
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Saturday May 11, 2013
It is Mother's Day weekend, and it frequently happens that dads have a bunch to do with Mother's Day for their own moms and the mom of their children.
The mom in our home loves flowers and a special dinner and dessert for Mother's Day. And we are trying to find time the same day with our moms as our siblings are trying to do the same thing. And then our married kids need to have some time to connect with their mothers-in-law, so it gets pretty complicated. I'm not sure there are enough hours in one Sunday to make all this work!
But enough whining from me. I am anxious to help my kids do all that we need to in order to honor their mom, who is absolutely the best mother I know. So on with the big production on Sunday.
Speaking of Mother's Day, our About.com Guides have lots of information about Mother's Day and things dads and kids can do to make it a great day for Mom.
Wednesday May 8, 2013
A newly released study from the Pew Research Center demonstrates that the roles of mothers and fathers in American society are converging, at least in terms of how they spend their time and how they feel about work-life balance. Consider the following study findings:
- 56% of working moms and 50% of working fathers find it somewhat difficult or very difficult to balance their home and work responsibilities
- Among mothers with children under 18, the share of those who prefer to work full-time has increased from 20% to 32% in the last five years
- About 60% of all households with children under 18 have two working parents. While fathers still spend more time at work outside the home, they are carrying an increasing share of the time working at home.
- Working mothers tend to rank themselves as doing a good job as a parent more highly than do working fathers. 73% of working moms say they are doing a good or excellent job as a parent compared to 64% of working dads.
The results of the study are quite intriguing. The study also compares the attitudes of moms working outside the home with those who do not work outside the home and to married moms versus unmarried moms, with some fascinating results. It is worth your time to see how the attitudes of parents today reflect the times in which we live and the increasing difficulty of managing work-life conflicts.
Learn more about work-life balance:
Image courtesy of Uwe Krejci/Getty Images
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