Being both a parent and a business leader is one of the toughest challenges in life. Essentially, you have two extremely demanding and important jobs, and it’s vital that you’re able to give your all to both. This isn’t easy, especially considering that just doing one of these roles is often stressful enough. So, what can you do to be a good parent and a good entrepreneur? While it will always be a challenge, you’ll find that there are a few things that you can do that will help you thrive in both areas while still allowing you to lead a happy and healthy lifestyle.
Create & Stick To A Strict Schedule
First, you need to get into the habit of creating a strict schedule for yourself. If you’re to give both areas of your life enough attention, you need to make time for both of these areas. Each week, you should sit down and create a schedule so that you’re putting enough time into your business, spending time with kids, carrying out chores, and practicing self-care. This will give each week structure and should help you to strike the right balance between business owner and parent.
Set Clear Boundaries
Once you have a schedule in place, it’s important to establish clear boundaries. When you’re spending quality time together as a family, for example, you shouldn’t be checking work emails, and employees should know that they shouldn’t contact you unless it’s an emergency. Of course, it’s important always to be available if your family needs you, but you should still try to get into a “work mode” where you’re not constantly being distracted.
Delegate Tasks To Trusted Employees
Running a successful business and being a parent will always be a huge amount of work; often, it’ll be too much work for any individual. This is why it’s important that you have people within your organization that you can trust and delegate to. Delegating tasks can free up a lot of time and mental energy, which can be put into parenting. In addition, delegating can also help the business as it spreads responsibility, builds trust, and creates a team-based mentality.
Ask For Support
Similarly, you shouldn’t shy away from asking for support from loved ones in terms of looking after your children when you’re swamped at work. It’s vital that you have a good support network around you as a busy parent, which could consist of:
- A partner
- Parents
- Siblings
- Friends
- Neighbors
- Other parents from the school
Hire Childcare
You should also consider hiring childcare or using a babysitter. You might not always be able to rely on loved ones or feel bad about constantly relying on someone, so that childcare can be a great solution. You know that your children are being properly looked after when you use childcare, providing peace of mind and allowing you to focus fully on work. Childcare can also be helpful in terms of freeing up time when you get home so that you’re able to have some time to yourself.
Many busy parents will use housekeepers who can look after the kids as well as complete various household tasks, such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry. This can make a huge difference to your life as it saves a lot of your time and energy while ensuring that the children and your house are always being properly looked after.
Work Remotely When Possible
It’s also a good idea to work remotely when possible. Remote work has been normalized in recent times, and it’s ideal for working parents because you’re able to look after the kids while working. As mentioned above, it’s important to have boundaries, but remote work is a great way to juggle both areas. Additionally, remote work eliminates the commute, which means that you get more time at home and don’t have the daily stress of trying to get to work on time and rushing back home to spend time with the kids.
Take Your Kids To Work
It might not always be practical, but you could also bring your kids to work with you. It’s important that they’re not disruptive to your employees, but bringing your kids to work could help you to look after them without impacting your work (this could be a good idea during school holidays). You could even give them a few basic tasks to help with. Not only will this lighten the load, but it will also help them to develop important life skills and give you the opportunity to demonstrate the value of hard work. As a business owner, it’s likely that you’ll want your kids to go on to do great things, so taking them to work could be a valuable experience that inspires them to aim high and develop a strong work ethic.
Find Hobbies To Enjoy With Your Kids
It’s vital that you’re able to connect with your kids and enjoy some quality time together. One of the best ways to do this is to find a hobby that you all enjoy doing together. One idea that’s worth considering is collecting and building Lego. Lego can be enjoyed by kids and adults, and it’s a hobby that can bring a wide range of benefits to life. Lego can stimulate creativity and imagination, encourage problem-solving, develop fine motor skills, and introduce basic math and science concepts. In addition to this, it’s also an activity that would reduce screen time—something that both kids and adults can benefit from!
Lego is also a great hobby for kids and parents because there are many ways to enjoy the hobby together. You can buy the most popular sets and put them together at home, as well as attend Lego conventions. Mr. Savage from New Canaan, Ct discusses the ultimate Lego convention and how it is a terrific way to immerse yourself in the world of Lego and meet other Lego collectors. Mr. Mr. Savage from New Canaan, Ct discusses the ultimate Lego convention is a successful entrepreneur who understands the importance of having hobbies that help him to disconnect from work and get the most out of his free time.
Meal Prep For A Healthy Diet
One of the biggest challenges of being a busy parent is trying to provide a healthy, balanced, and delicious diet for the family. It is hard to find the time to cook healthy meals each day, sovery often, busy parents end up resorting to quick and unhealthy options. While there’s nothing wrong with the occasional takeout, it’s vital that you and your children enjoy a healthy diet during the rest of the week. A cheat code for this is meal prep, which involves cooking meals for the week in one cooking session. These meals can then be put in the fridge or freezer so that they just need heating up during the week. This can save you a huge amount of time and energy throughout the week while ensuring that your family can enjoy healthy and delicious meals.
Make Family Time Count
The time that you do have with your kids will be precious, so it’s important that you make it count. Instead of sitting in the lounge with everyone using their smartphones, try to plan fun activities together that will be memorable and encourage communication. Going for walks, having board game nights, and watching movies together are all valuable. Additionally, try to have as many meals together as possible—family dinners are hugely important in terms of communication and spending quality time together. Of course, you don’t want to force too much family time on your kids (especially when they become teens), but it’s a good idea to try and spend as much quality time together as possible.
Empower Your Kids
It’s also a good idea to empower your kids. You’ll want your children to be independent, confident, and mature, so you should empower them by teaching them how to be self-sufficient. Not only will this be helpful in terms of their development, but it will also free up more time and give you peace of mind, knowing that your kids aren’t completely reliant on you for everything. You can teach them how to do basic chores around the house, how to cook, and how to get home from school by themselves.
It might seem impossible to thrive in both these important areas of your life, but it is possible to be an excellent business owner and parent. Hopefully, the information in this guide will be useful and give you a few ideas on how you can strike the right balance. It will always be demanding and stressful at times, but once you know how you can give your all to both areas of life and know a few tips and tricks for saving time and energy, it will become a lot easier to be a great parent and business leader.