Loving Lockdown? The Joys of Being a Working Parent
Feeling trapped and overwhelmed with family and work life? On this edition of The Business Brunch we are joined by Jessica Mason from Chapman Robinson & Moore, Nicola Wallbank from Julian Taylor Solicitors, Howard Feather from NatWest and Katerina Kurgane, also from Chapman Robinson & Moore as they talk about the pressures of being a parent in lockdown and how they are managing to cope with work and home life.
For the majority of families, work and home life have changed drastically, parents have become teachers and work has fallen to the bottom of the pile. Everything has shifted and with parents having no time to focus on themselves or their relationship, they have been pushed far outside of their comfort zone. Over the past year studies have shown an increase in failed relationships / marriages and also an increase in mental health issues.
“My attention has had to be more focused on homeschooling.”
Jessica Mason, Chapman Robinson & Moore
Jessica spoke about how “my attention has had to be more focused on homeschooling”, which has had a huge impact on how parents structure their day and it has been incredibly tricky for them to know what to prioritise, work or school. Jessica later went on to talk about how her “time is being absorbed by being a parent” and has proven to be very testing and hard to switch between the work and parent mindset.
How do you find the correct balance of work, parent and marriage life? This has been a big question for a lot of people and is something we are all working on to try and find an answer to. Howard discussed the problems of moving a company such as NatWest online. NatWest has had to “mobilise 49,000 people to work from home” – no small task which has put immense pressure on employees and the company itself.
“NatWest has had to “mobilise 49,000 people to work from home” – no small task.”
Howard Feather, NatWest
Every family has had their own personal experiences with this particular challenge and as Nicola mentioned “different people have different challenges” but things are starting to look up! Question is, are parents actually ready for life to go back to “normal”’? Is there a worry that adapting back to the real world will be another mountain to climb?
“Different people have different challenges” but things are starting to look up!”
Nicola Wallbank, Julian Taylor Solicitors
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