Family & Social Child Developement

Dual career parents have to navigate tradeoffs between work life and commitments to the family, but it doesn't always have to be a struggle. Here's one dad's tips on how he and his wife work together to balance the two.

Play to your strengths

The best approach for dual career parents is to know your areas of strength so you can actively lead in those areas and support your partner in the others. For example, I am more patient and love teaching, so I have taken a lead in areas related to school, sports, games and general knowledge, while my wife takes care of health related stuff, shopping, planning movies, and family outings.

Prioritize

You cannot do every single thing out there. Letting go of certain things and knowing what is important will help plan better. For example, both my wife and I enjoy running, but its futile to try and run together. We usually take turns when registering for races so one of us can be with Sana while the other can go for the run. 

Don't let any one parent become the default parent

It is important for each parent to be able to take care of the child independently for a few days. This can avoid the anxiety and heartburn during business trips and such.

Begin as you mean to go

If you are in a job that requires late nights, then best to let your partner be the one who settles the child with a bedtime routine. You can be the one to get them ready or drop them to school.

Delegate

With a dual career household, time is the most precious commodity, and it is very important to determine tasks that can be delegated. For instance, for us, we have a part time helper which gives us time to spend with each other and our child. It has helped us to avoid stress and has been a very high ROI spend .