#working dads

[tennesseemensclinic]

Tennessee Men's Clinic Highlights Tips for Working Dads: Balancing Work and Family Life

Vital Tips for Working Dads: Achieving Work-Life Balance with Tennessee Mens Clinic

Busy fathers often face the challenge of balancing work demands with nurturing their family life, especially when it comes to their children. According to Tennessee Men's Clinic, striking the right harmony between career duties and quality family time is no easy task. Emphasizing efficient time management and fostering meaningful connections with family members is crucial for skillfully managing the fine line between work commitments and family responsibilities. This ensures that both aspects of their lives are cared for and enriched.

Tips for busy fathers striving to attain work-life balance.

1. Cut down distractions. To enhance your focus at work and with your kids, it's important to minimize daytime distractions. By reducing interruptions and honing in on the present moment, you can better engage in each aspect of your life, ensuring quality interactions and productivity in both work and family life. 2. Have tech-free time at home to have time for your kids. Make sure to set aside some tech-free time at home so you can truly focus on spending quality moments with your kids. It's a great way to connect, engage in activities together, and create lasting memories without any distractions from screens or gadgets. 3. Put family time on your calendar. Ensure to prioritize family time by scheduling it into your calendar. Just like you organize work commitments, include personal activities as well. For a more structured approach, consider planning on a quarterly basis, similar to how you manage significant work projects. Tennessee Men's Clinic mentions that one way to ensure quality family time is by setting specific goals for each scheduled activity. This could be something as simple as having one-on-one time with each family member or planning a fun outing together. By setting goals, you not only have a clear purpose for your family time but also give everyone involved something to look forward to. 4. Model balanced behavior for yourself and others. Modeling balanced behavior is crucial, not only for yourself but also for those around you. By demonstrating a harmonious approach to work-life balance, you are setting a positive example that others will look up to and emulate. It's important to communicate clearly with clients, employees, and anyone else who inquires about your availability. For instance, you can inform them that your working hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., emphasizing that you do not take calls or respond to emails outside of these designated times. This boundary-setting practice not only fosters a healthy work environment but also reinforces the importance of respecting personal time.

5. Pick supportive work partners and delegate to them. Selecting work partners who are supportive, reliable, and share your goals is crucial. Once you've found the right team members, entrust them with responsibilities to foster a collaborative environment. Trust plays a vital role in achieving a healthy work-life balance. Tennessee Men's Clinic emphasizes that by relinquishing some control and delegating tasks effectively, you can create room for valuable moments with your family, nurturing both your professional and personal life.

Tennessee Men's Clinic touches on important topics such as fitness, men's health, fatherhood, and more. Visit this site to read similar blogs.

[itsnellesworld]

2017’s Best & Worst States for Working Dads [Infographic]

2017’s Best & Worst States for Working Dads [Infographic]

With Father’s Day approaching and nearly 93 percent of dads with young kids working today, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2017’s Best & Worst States for Working Dads.

In order to help dads balance their dual role as parent and provider, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia across 22 key indicators of friendliness toward…

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[masetv]

2017’s Best & Worst States for Working Dads [Infographic]

2017’s Best & Worst States for Working Dads [Infographic]

With Father’s Day approaching and nearly 93 percent of dads with young kids working today, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2017’s Best & Worst States for Working Dads. In order to help dads balance their dual role as parent and provider, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia across 22 key indicators of friendliness toward…

View On WordPress

[amorehouse5-blog]

From a SAHM's Perspective: working moms I truly applaud you, but also let's not forget about the working dads...

From a SAHM’s Perspective: working moms I truly applaud you, but also let’s not forget about the working dads…

The working mom…

I had the opportunity to commit to this role for about 3 months, and that was enough for me. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity not to.

Let me share a quick story with you…

I went back to work 3 months after giving birth to my son (like many moms do, and some have to go back even sooner than that!).  I literally cried every morning and all I…

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[oneilljennifer-blog]

New Law Gives Parents More Flexibility at Work

For California parents, the days of having to choose between their jobs and tending to childcare or school-related needs are over. 

As of Jan. 1, a new law in the Golden State allows working parents to use their paid sick days to care for a child during a childcare or school emergency — and to take job-protected time off to find and enroll kids in childcare or school — without risking discrimination or termination. 

Story: Meet the Man Who Sued His Boss to Spend More Time With His Kids

Per Senate Bill 579, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Oct. 11, employers with more than 25 workers must provide up to 40 hours per year (not to exceed eight hours a month) for parents to attend to family emergencies such as tending to a sick child or a school closing because of a terror threat. Under the new law, the pool of eligible employees is also expanded to include stepparents, foster parents, grandparents, and other persons who essentially act as a parent to a child. 

Story: ‘You Can Have It All, but Not All at Once’: Words of Wisdom From Single Mom (and President Obama Confidant) Valerie Jarrett

“Existing law allows workers the ability to take time off to participate in activities of the school or licensed child day care facility of his/her child; however, this time must be either unpaid or taken using a vacation, personal leave, or compensatory time off,” according to the state’s Senate Floor Analyses report of the bill, issued in July. “The author and proponents of this bill believe that more flexibility is needed. … Proponents argue that parents need assurance they will not lose their job when they must leave work to attend to the well-being of their child. They believe that by allowing working parents to take time off for these important reasons, the Legislature will strengthen its support for working mothers and fathers by helping them keep their jobs while fulfilling their parental obligations. Proponents argue that this bill also benefits employers by strengthening employee morale and job retention for working parents.” 

A few other states have laws like this, including Vermont and Louisiana, but the California statute is broader than others because it requires the employer to make leave available for any form of unscheduled school closure (think snow day) and provides for leave if a child is sent home from school for reasons other than illness, such as suspension, Elizabeth Tippett, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, tells Yahoo Parenting. “Other state sick-leave laws only honor school closures where the closure relates to a public-health emergency.”

Employment law expert Jeffrey M. Hirsch, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill, tells Yahoo Parenting the law is also unique in that it’s “a pretty significant expansion of what the federal FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act] provides.” 

And while he says there’s not much likelihood that California’s move will create a domino effect of other states enacting similar laws, Hirsch has hope that individual companies may follow suit. “I see this as part of a trend that includes some private-sector employers providing better leave,” he says. “As more people experience and expect such leave, there may be more of a national push to give similar leave to more employees.” 

Companies, in fact, may opt to follow California’s lead simply for administrative purposes — to make policies uniform for workers in all of the states in which they have offices, Marcia L. McCormick, director of the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law and professor of law at St. Louis University, tells Yahoo Parenting. “They’ll go with it just so it’s easier,” she adds.

But no matter how or why the protected time off is administered, McCormick says it’s an important achievement that it’s offered. “Generally speaking, it’s impossible, more than at any other time previously seen, to maintain some kind of moderate middle-class life,” she says. “Both parents often have to work, and the only way they can do it is to have childcare or kids in school. That makes figuring out childcare and getting kids established in school really essential to being able to make both parents able to work and keep the family going. So making sure that employees can take the time they need when they cannot have childcare or kids in school — or even to arrange those things — makes a lot of sense. Working parents can therefore maintain their job, their standard of living.” 

Even with the risk of the new law reinforcing gender stereotypes (McCormick thinks women will be more likely to take advantage of the policy and then perpetuate the idea of mothers as primary caregivers), she says the law is “really just smart in terms of economic stability.” 

Top photo: Kelly Knox/Stocksy

Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? Email us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.

[themomsandthecity]

Are dads underserved in the workplace?

by Joey Lombardi posted in Mom Stories This summer has been heavily work-focused for me. I am running a project I am very interested in, and it is going well. As a father, when I am heads down with work, of course I feel like I am ignoring my son and wife. Unsurprisingly, I am... Read more » Want to get the full story? Click on the headline above. And thanks for reading the BabyCenter Blog. http://bit.ly/1hMW2se

[lazyboy222]

Going To Work

I don't mind going to work.....

But the eight hours wait to go home is just a pain...

[newstfionline]

When Their Workday Ends, More Fathers Are Heading Into the Kitchen

By Rachel L. Swarns, NY Times, Nov. 23, 2014

Sometimes, Joe Kreisberg ponders the question during his morning commute. Sometimes, he considers it at his desk at an advertising agency in Manhattan or on his afternoon stroll for a caffeinated pick-me-up.

“It’s kind of in the back of my mind all day,” said Mr. Kreisberg, 35, describing that perennial working parents’ quandary: What will I cook for the family tonight? “I’m thinking about the ingredients. I’m thinking about what I have in the fridge.”

He hops on the subway back home to Long Island City, Queens, around 5 p.m., dashes to the day care center to pick up his 7-month-old son, Harrison, and often squeezes in a run to the grocery store. Finally, he gets into the kitchen. Soon, he is roasting a chicken stuffed with rosemary, thyme and onion, or seasoning some fresh salmon or frying up eggplant for parmigiana.

Mr. Kreisberg is a freelance copy writer, a husband and a father. He is also a member of what he and other men describe as an often overlooked portion of the population: the growing number of working dads who cook.

“We do a lot more than barbecue,” Mr. Kreisberg said wryly.

Mr. Kreisberg got in touch with me this month when I invited working parents to join an online conversation about the challenges of juggling hectic work schedules and family dinners. In my column, I ended up quoting only working mothers--many more women responded to my query than men--and some readers protested.

“It really frustrates me that this is so often framed as a women’s issue,” said Natalie Pacholl, the mother of a 3-year-old who lives in Vancouver, Wash., and works for a high-tech manufacturing company. “Where are the dads in most of these discussions?”

Michael M. Rooke-Ley, a retired law professor in Eugene, Ore., echoed those concerns, noting that “a 1950s ethic still prevails” at times, even when both parents work.

“In these outposts of gender-based tradition,” Mr. Rooke-Ley said, “Dad needs to get off the couch!”

Mr. Kreisberg would like you to know that he and many other fathers are already off the couch. Statistics bear him out. While women are cooking much less than they did in the 1960s, men are cooking much more.

A study published last year by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed that the percentage of men who spent time cooking on any given day jumped to 42 percent in 2008 from 29 percent in 1965. (As more women joined the work force, the percentage who cooked dropped during that period to 68 percent from 92 percent.)

Women still spend more than twice as much time preparing meals than men on an average day, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. But I have to agree with Mr. Kreisberg when he points out that fathers are clearly spending more time in the kitchen than they used to.

Some cook a couple of days a week or on the weekends. Others embrace the bulk of the work.

I’m talking about men like Derek Hartwick, a 55-year-old rowing coach who lives in Highland Park, N.J., and cooks about five times a week for his wife and two sons.

He and his wife both work full time, but Mr. Hartwick gets home earlier, so he handles dinner, serving up dishes like pasta with shrimp scampi, breaded chicken and homemade pizzas where everyone picks their own toppings.

It can be a struggle, he said, working full time and preparing home-cooked meals while also offering homework help and volunteering as a soccer coach.

“Sometimes we’re successful, sometimes we’re not,” Mr. Hartwick said. “But we try to make a conscious effort. We feel like it’s important to have some time to sit down together over a meal.”

Lorin Wertheimer, a 44-year-old television producer and father of two, cooks his family’s meals for the week on Saturdays and Sundays. He juggles family outings with time in the kitchen where he prepares chicken, stews, chili and vegetables for the workdays ahead.

“I believe in an equal share of housework,” said Mr. Wertheimer, who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “It’s a way in which I can pull my weight.”

Mr. Kreisberg, who has a shaved head, a beard and tattoos, said that people were sometimes surprised to learn that he is the primary cook in his household.

“He’s kind of tough looking and rugged,” said his wife, Amy, who works full time for a pharmaceutical company and does the dishes after dinner. “But he loves to cook. I feel really lucky.”

Managing the evening scramble is not easy, Mr. Kreisberg said. But it is one of the many ways that he cares for his family and serves as a role model for his baby boy, who often watches him cooking from a high chair.

“I hope to teach him to develop his own brand of masculinity,” Mr. Kreisberg said, “and that ‘being a man’ can include baking zucchini bread, watching the Food Network and being curious about cooking.”