Society is changing at blazing speed. To prove it you just need to look back few years ago and appreciate how the concept of family as we know it today has changed.
As we all know, traditionally in the distribution of family roles the man was engaged on the production and the woman on the reproduction. In other words, the role of women were limited mainly to housework and caring for children, while men worked to ensure family stability.
What has happened in the latest years? Single mothers, gay marriages, integration of women into the labour market, balance in the distribution in household, increment of life expectancy or express marriages, among many others.
At the same time, advertising is bombarding us with men and women who must have professional success, devoting full attention to their children, practicing sport regularly to maintain ourselves healthly, being physically attractive using thousands of products, travelling, having a social life and being sexual active, do not neglecting our elders and being in the perfect marriage.
Well, where do we get time to do all of this? Is it possible to have reconciliation in all these facets of our life?
A Spanish study has shown that 35% of Spanish people have to sacrifice sleep to achieve this conciliation . This involves long-term direct consequences that affect the welfare and quality of life.
Problems such as altering the rhythms of sleep, stress, irritability, lack of performance by exhaustion or low self-esteem for failing to achieve all these objectives are very common in our society today.
Why is so difficult today to reconcile work and family life?
– The legal context is not yet adapted to the new social changes. It is necessary the creation of a legal context for equal opportunities and the implementation of a balance in the sharing of family responsibilities.
This would include maternity and paternity leave, reduced working hours for child care, nursing leave, schedules adaptation that allows us to meet the needs of children or prevention of health risks and care of mother and baby.
Although many actions has been taken in order to sort this issues, , its implementation is not yet entirely effective and it is more likely to bear the brunt of child care only in the mother figure neglecting father figure.
– The labour market still does not offer complete equality between men and women. Although women have joined the labour world, the greatest burden of housework and childcare remains with them according to a study.
In addition, women between 25 and 45 years old are at risk of discrimination at a stage with great probability of pregnancy.
– Lack of day-care centres at work and with compatible schedules. The full-time and the few companies that provide day-care centres for their employees, causes the workers do not know where to leave their children while they work.
– Aspiration an unattainable lifestyle. As mentioned above, the aspirational model woman or man who has instituted society today is an impossible model to achieve.
We must be physically perfect, getting exercise regularly, eating a balanced diet, helping our children with their homework and making sure all their needs and demands are met, maintaining our active social life, success in our careers, taking time to ourselves, to our partner…
It is impossible to achieve this without help, because no matter how well we organize, the supersaturation of tasks at one time can affect our well-being.
How to achieve an effective conciliation?
If we want to avoid stress, irritability or lack of performance it is advisable to establish a set of guidelines to follow to achieve an effective conciliation of work, family, personal and social life.
– Raising awareness and changing attitudes regarding the distribution of roles.
Establishing an equitable sharing of the roles in housework is crucial. Making a weekly calendar in the couple can be very useful.
– Sometimes it is advisable to ask for help.
Often much we try to bring everything forward, it is important to ask for help to get more time for us. For example hiring a housemaid for it to care of housework or a nanny to care for our children is an investment in us.
– Establishing working conditions that enable combining work and personal and family responsibilities.
It is important to mediate with our businesses and take our rights as working parents.
– We must find time for recovery. It is necessary that we could find time for ourselves and do what we like to pamper yourself. Reading that book you’re looking forward to it, spending an afternoon at the cinema with your kids, a weekend getaway with your partner or a relaxing bath. Remember that you are the most important.
– Effective organization. Having an agenda to manage our time and organize our week, establishing our work in important, unimportant, urgent and nonurgent will help us to bring everything forward in a more effective manner.
As you can see, a correct conciliation is essential for our well-being. In Aecetia we make the reconciliation of professional and personal life could be possible by providing housework. So, you just have to worry about enjoying your family, we’ll handle the rest.
