Work and Family Balance

Work and Family Balance after Covid-19

I don’t know about any of you, but my schedule was jammed packed before the pandemic! I often ran out of hours in the day and felt that I was always working with no time for my family and having fun. When COVID hit, my work shut down, and I suddenly had a tremendous amount of time to fill.

At first, it was a bit depressing and monotonous. However, I soon realized that I had time to do enjoyable things and spend a lot of time with my teen son. My wife was not so lucky; her schedule did not change, and she was still working just as many, if not more, hours.

As things have started opening back up, I feel anxious about going back to my regular schedule. The last thing that I want to go back to is not having time for my family and myself. This has led me to start implementing some things to help save time once I return to my everyday work schedule.

The first thing I did was create a list of priorities. At the top of the list was not bringing my work home!

I decided that we were going to keep dinner time an electronics-free zone. I have found that dinner time is an excellent time for everyone to catch up with each other. I also have started to plan out our meals. I now keep a list on the fridge, and when they think of something they want, they add it to the list. I have found that this saves me time at the store and saves me money because I am not buying anything that the family is not going to eat.

In addition to meals, I have planned into our schedule one date night for my wife and me, one activity for my son and me, and one for him and his mother per month. My wife and I decided that we would switch who plans out date night every month. This also leaves one weekend a month where we can plan a family outing or activity. Let me tell you, and we have been having so much fun planning out these activities. Next weekend my son and I are going to see a movie.

I also have learned over the past year that I need time for myself. I have been taking an online fitness class 3 times a week, and I have decided that I will continue this once it resumes in person. This gives me just a little bit of time each week to help keep myself healthy, and I was also able to fit it in a while my son is at his soccer practice. I call that a win!

I hope that all of these changes will continue to help me spend more quality time with my family.