November is National Career Development Month. While career development is obviously important, one of the biggest struggles of being a working parent is finding work-life balance.

Read on for some tips!

?? Why Is Healthy Work-Balance Important?

According to a Harvard Business School survey, 94% of working professionals work more than 50 hours per week. All this stress can damage your health, happiness, and relationships with your loved ones.

If work-life balance is delicate even when you don’t have children, for parents, it can become as exhausting as an obstacle race. Americans with children under the age of 18 are more likely to report feeling stressed for having not enough time than those without kids, Gallup says. Here are some tips that can help you with your work-life balance while raising kids:

• Learn to say “no” and set your priorities according to your real preferences.
• Perfection is out of reach. Everybody makes mistakes. Try not to be hard on yourself because of it.
• Enjoy your me-time and moments with your family and friends. Do you check your work email on the weekends? Try to unplug! You may find yourself more present with your family.
• Have you tried exercise and meditation? It will release endorphins that will help you feel good and reduce your stress.
• Build your work-life balance with baby steps. Drastic changes may not work out for you. Set small and specific goals that can help you move forward.
• Try to do at least one thing you love every day.
• Remote working, bringing your kids to the workplace or a flexible schedule might be great improvements! You can always talk to your managers.
• Ask for support. Remember, you are a parent, not a superhero! Recognize your limits and ask for help when you need it.
• Make a contingency plan with someone you trust, like a partner, a parent, or a friend. This will make sure that unexpected events, like having to pick up your child from school early, are covered.

?Benefits of Balancing Work and Life With Kids

Here are some of the perks of achieving a good work-life balance:

• You’ll feel less stressed, more healthy and energetic, and better able to make decisions.
• It will help you prevent burnout at work.
• It’s better for your children, as they will spend more quality time with you.
• It’s good for your relationships with your loved ones.
• How to Find Work-Life Balance as a Family

If you are a working mom or dad, or you have a partner, and both of you work, you’ve for sure realized the importance of sharing the load of raising the kids and running a household.

In an ideal world, both of you would be able to do things you love and create a clear separation between work and home. That may be difficult, but very rewarding.

And, why don’t you involve your children in this balance? How? Invite them to help you while planning the activities the family is going to do together. They can also help you with the shopping list or choose the meals you’ll cook weekly. They can start helping out with small household chores when they are young, like picking up their toys after playing with them. This way, you can spend more time together and less time cleaning up the house!

Some of the Lingokids games that will help your children learn more about how to do these tasks while they play (here at Lingokids we call it playlearning) are the Washing Dishes Game or the Bedroom Cleanup Game.

Collaboration from your kids is an excellent way to keep this balance. You can learn more about how to teach your kids how to collaborate in this article about the 4 C’s (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration), and you’ll find more about them in this post.

Inspire Yourself With These Work-Life Balance Quotes

“Women, in particular, need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”

Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017.

“You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life.”

Heather Schuck, The Working Mom Manifesto.

“You have to balance your passions, not your time.”

Lisa Sugar, founder of PopSugar.

“It’s all about quality of life and finding a happy balance between work and friends and Family”

Philip Green, chairman of Arcadia Group.

“Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.”

Regina Brett, author inspirational speaker, and newspaper columnist.

What’s your favorite one? Do you have any other preferred quotes you’d like to share or tips for your work-life balance? You can post them in the comments!

And remember that you’ll find more parenting tips in our Social Media channels and our blog.