HBR Working Parents

Too many working parents focus solely on those around them, completely losing sight of what they need themselves. But neglecting your own needs and wants can prevent you from being healthy, productive, and happy. Taking Care of Yourself provides expert advice to help you identify what you value most out of your work and home life, make choices that align with those values, and manage the emotions that come with them. You'll learn to: prioritize the areas of your life that are most important to you-and let go of what's not; cope with the sacrifices you're making both at work and at home; deal with the feelings that come with being a working parent, including guilt; carve out time for your mental health and your physical well-being; communicate your needs and expectations with your boss and your family; and feel more present both at work and at home. The HBR Working Parents series supports listeners as they anticipate challenges, learn how to advocate for themselves more effectively, juggle their impossible schedules, and find fulfillment at home and at work.

Move ahead in your career-without leaving your family behind. What happens when you're no longer setting goals and chasing dreams that work for you alone? When the career choices you make have ripple effects on your family? Can you uproot your household for an overseas assignment even if it's a surefire path to promotion? How do you make time for your kids-or yourself-if you work more than one job? These are some of the questions you ask yourself as you struggle to balance managing your career with managing your family. In Managing Your Career, experts provide answers to the challenges you face as a working parent, from negotiating a flexible schedule to overcoming the parenthood penalty whether you're taking time off, treading water, or reentering the workforce. You'll learn to: assess the impact of downshifting on your career, your home life, and your identity; make time for professional development; communicate effectively with everyone, from your boss to your toddler; boost your impact and visibility, even with an erratic schedule; and build support systems to get you through rough patches at work and cope with childcare failures.

Gone are the days when fathers were expected to put work first and family last. Today, men worldwide are redefining fatherhood and finding greater fulfillment both at work and at home. But old ways die hard. Many managers prefer the status quo, and fathers aren't finding the support and flexibility they need from their employers. Dads still feel pressure to downplay or hide their involvement in their children's lives. And even as more men step up as parents, across every level of society the burdens of parenting and running a household still fall unfairly on women. Fatherhood is one of the toughest jobs and the biggest responsibility you'll ever take on. Advice for Working Dads will teach you how to balance and integrate work and parenthood, how to navigate the common pitfalls at work, and how to find success when you're taking on twice as much-for the good of your family. This volume will help you: navigate workplaces and bosses that want you to forget you're a parent; spend your time at work and at home more purposefully; make time for yourself, your friends, and your hobbies; set reasonable expectations and limits in the always-on work culture; communicate better with your spouse or partner about careers, parenting, and housework; get the paternal leave you and your family need; set your family up for success; and more.

Stop juggling; start managing everything you need to do at home and at work. It used to be simple: Stay late, turn in flawless work, catch up on sleep later. You needed that mind-set to get where you are, but that's not going to cut it anymore. You need to make different choices to succeed at work, as a parent, and as a family member. Getting It All Done can't teach you how to be in two places at once, but it provides you with expert advice as you manage the challenge of succeeding at work while making sure your family is housed, fed, healthy, safe, and educated. You'll learn to: set up schedules and routines that work; spend your time and energy on the most valuable activities; set reasonable expectations and limits in the always-on culture; keep exercising your management skills once you've left the office; move on with resilience when you occasionally drop the ball; and embody the work and life values you believe in for your children.

Talk to your toddler, your teen, your caregiver, your boss, your partner, yourself There are days in every working parent's life when it feels like you're screaming into the wind. The days when you have to ask your childless boss if you can leave work early-again-for a kid issue. The days your kid tearfully asks why you have to get on an airplane for work when you just got home. The days you simmer with resentment because you can't find the right words to have a productive conversation with your partner about the division of labor at home. The days you tell yourself you're failing everyone-including yourself. Each of us has days where we struggle to communicate effectively at home and at work. But we can have fewer days like that and more productive conversations. We can listen and be heard. In Communicate Better with Everyone, experts provide answers to the challenges you face as a working parent, from negotiating your schedule and workload with your boss to connecting with your teen without nagging or lecturing to talking to yourself with more compassion. You'll learn to: conduct more productive conversations; set boundaries and stick to them; ask better questions; see issues from the other person's perspective; and navigate difficult issues.

Navigate work successfully as a first-time parent Just when you're starting to figure out this parent thing, wham, your leave is over. Take a deep breath, you'll get through it. The first few weeks and months as a working parent are hard, but they can be truly affirming, too. People want to see you succeed, they'll support you if you ask, and you'll find you have energy stores and resources you didn't know existed. You can make great strides forward in your career as a new parent. Succeeding as a First-Time Parent can help. This volume will help you: understand all your options for childcare, have essential conversations with your spouse or partner, stay connected during leave and hit the ground running, get the support you need at work, stay on the career track you want to be on, set reasonable expectations for yourself, carry on amid inevitable exhaustion and emotional upheaval, and set your family up for success. The HBR Working Parents series with Daisy Dowling, series editor, supports you as you anticipate challenges, learn how to advocate for yourself more effectively, juggle your impossible schedule, and find fulfillment at home and at work. Whether you're up with a newborn or planning the future with your teen, you'll find the practical tips, strategies, and research you need to make working parenthood work for you.

You're only one person. Make life a little easier. As a single parent, your life is different from the other working parents around you. With the pressure to perform well at work and no partner to assist with tasks at home, you likely find yourself with many responsibilities but little support. It's a heavy weight to bear. Doing It All as a Solo Parent helps you to lighten the load. Drawing on the expertise from experts and parents alike, it provides practical tips and advice catered to your unique challenges as a solo parent. Whether you're divorced, widowed, or single by choice, you'll discover how to do it all-without the stress. You'll learn to: find a childcare arrangement that works for you, establish boundaries on your limited time, set a budget using one income, build a support system of family and friends, carve out time for kids-and yourself, and achieve work/life balance while working multiple jobs. The HBR Working Parents series with Daisy Dowling, series editor, supports you as you anticipate challenges, learn how to advocate for yourself more effectively, juggle your impossible schedule, and find fulfillment at home and at work. Whether you're up with a newborn or planning the future with your teen, you'll find the practical tips, strategies, and research you need to make working parenthood work for you.

Manage the competing demands of careers, childrearing, and chores - together. When you and your partner are prioritizing your careers and your family, every day can feel like a series of small and large negotiations. How you navigate balancing both of your careers with your family life not only affects the type of people you're raising, your success at work, and how smoothly your household runs, but also how you feel about each other. Can you each chase your dreams, raise good citizens, make time for hobbies and health, and nourish your relationship well enough that you still like each other when your nest is empty and you're in your final acts of your careers? If it seems like a lot, that's because it is a lot. But it is possible to support your family, your children, your careers, and your relationship without collapsing into a heap every Friday night. In Two-Career Families, experts provide answers to the challenges you face as a working parent partner from negotiating responsibilities at home to making career decisions to supporting each other's growth. You'll learn to: define success as individuals, as a family, and as a couple, stay on top of daily demands while tracking long-term goals, communicate your needs more effectively, make fair tradeoffs, deal with crises and setbacks, build and maintain a team mindset, and balance it all - or most of it.

Your kid gets sick, so you leave work early-again. You're an expert at driving the carpool line and setting up for the morning meeting. You missed out on another stretch assignment because you don't have time. It's assumed you'll bake the treats for the fundraiser-and man the table. As a working mother you often draw the short straw. You carry most of the burden of caregiving and household chores-and your career suffers because of it. Bosses and coworkers assume that since you're focused on your family, you don't prioritize work, and they give crucial opportunities to those around you. Advice for Working Moms can help you alleviate this stress. Drawing on the wisdom of experts and parents alike, it will help you strike the right balance between family and work, all while navigating the long-standing bias against mothers and, more broadly, women in the workforce. You'll learn to: establish the boundaries you need at home and at work; negotiate flextime, time off, and maternity leave; facilitate your return to work after taking time off for caregiving; combat the "motherhood penalty"; negotiate a more equal division of labor at home with your partner; and say no to "office housework" and other menial tasks at work.