Raising Kids and Earning a Living, the Twenty-first Century Style

Definitely, 21st century-style homemaking is marked with a certain degree of distinctiveness. Not only that family values, in one way or another, have progressed and had been subject to several cultural reconsiderations, but the fast-paced advancement in technology has also caused a substantial impact on family life. Also, the existing social and economic conditions throughout the world have contributed to shaping the family. As it appears, the most significant feature of the concept of family in the 21st century is the seeming need of the parents to work for the family at the expense of family time.

Ensuring the well-being of the children

As many parents have to leave their homes for several hours daily to earn a living and support the needs of their family, they resort to alternative arrangements to ensure that their children are well taken care of while they are away. Aside from relieving them of the worry about the well-being of their kids, these arrangements also give them the degree of levelheadedness required for them to accomplish their work efficiently.

Thus, deciding the best possible arrangement is no easy task. Usually, parents consider several factors in making such a decision. These factors include its cost-effectiveness, its location and proximity to its residence, its family-friendliness, and the level of confidence that it gives.;

Presently, it has become a statistical and cultural norm that daycare services are being utilized to ensure the child’s well-being and provide parents with sufficient leeway to attend to their jobs. While homes and daycares were previously viewed as an adversarial model (home vs. daycare), they are increasingly viewed as complementary and interconnected.

These are the benefits of daycare centers to parents and children alike, such as the opportunity on the part of the parents to sort regular routines and activities, increased positive exposure and interaction on the part of the children with their peers of the same age, and to other adults as well, are now getting noticed and appreciated as something useful and productive.

It is important to remember that there is no substitute for the care parents provide their kids at home, but daycare centers can somehow fill in the gaps while parents are away. After all, in real life, parents can’t be there 24/7 for their children. And even if they could, it may be mentally and physically unhealthy for the parents.

Keeping connected with the kids

Being away for several hours a day brings about a huge problem when it comes to forging an intimate bond with the kids, most especially during the time that they grow up. As children usually form their behavior, manners, and even values out of the conduct of the adults surrounding them, parents usually encounter difficulties in being the authority figures and role models of their kids due to their limited time together. Consequently, one of the adverse effects of parents being away from home is their diminished participation in the child’s formative years.

To prevent this situation, parents have to employ creative means to make the most out of their time with their kids. Among their common practices to create a special parent-child bond is organizing and spending memorable weekends and holiday activities together, inventing personalized gestures (like fist bumps) and nicknames, sharing warm and cherished stories, and the like. These activities have common denominators – they forge an intimate link between the parent and the child, even within a span of limited time, thus ensuring a sense of familiarity, closeness, and affection between them.

Admittedly, however, there are certain instances when a schedule of a special family event unluckily conflicts with that of an important work matter. What happens when your son’s first-ever baseball tournament coincides with an important client meeting? What would you do when your daughter’s recital, whom she practiced for several weeks, falls on the same date as your work-related trip overseas?

In these situations, hard choices have to be made, and most often than not, the ensuing results in either choice are just but too consequential. A circumstance like those may seem like some ultimate test, but it significant to remember that one may be able to cope with the unchosen option; the only test left is which will that unchosen option be.

Making the family thrive in the 21st century

In a world of increasing personal independence, weaving the fabric of great family life is no easy feat. Arguably, the most important element in forging healthy family relations is the effort every member has to exert to make time for the family. Without it, no family will succeed.