I have only seen a few postings, a few pieces of information. How about you?

You know that a major holiday is near, don’t you? We don’t know exactly when or how this celebration started. And debates continue about whether the event is global or U.S.-only. Whatever. The real question is: are you ready for Working Parents Day, which falls right in the middle of the workweek this year, Wednesday, Sept. 16?

Probably not.

Because even though you may be in the 97.5% of married couples with families with one employed parent, or 64% of married couples with families where both parents work (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2019), Working Parents Day may not be highlighted on your agenda. Even if it is, it will be different, just like every day, week and month has been in our continued COVID calendar times.

Plenty of Content

There’s been abundant communications and media coverage about the plight of working parents. Just as the virus hasn’t complied with predictions that it will wash over us in waves, storytelling about, by and for working parents has been a continual flow. Well, come to think of it, maybe there were a couple of surges: the suddenness of working and schooling at home in the spring and the back-to-school (face-to-face/virtual/hybrid) and back-to-office debates of late summer.

Content has spanned challenges and silver linings, advice in the face of adversity, heart ache and humor. Data points at turns are disturbing and delightful.

Among the many recent pieces of content on the trials, tribulations and triumphs of working parenthood now, three come to mind. The Harvard Business Review in July offered us “HBR Readers on Juggling Work and Kids…In A Pandemic.” More often noted for its management and boardroom advice, HBR clipped content from its readers. There are recommendations on behaviors, boundaries, communications (of course), and much more.  https://hbr.org/2020/07/hbr-readers-on-juggling-work-and-kids-in-a-pandemic

Bearing the Brunt

Even as the country as a whole, and working parents generally, prioritized work-life balance, and shared responsibilities in the home, we may be taking a step back.  A U.S. Census Bureau Report, “Working Moms Bear Brunt of Home Schooling While Working During COVID-19,” noted that in states with early stay-at-home orders and school closures, 53.2% of working mothers were more likely to take a job leave than working mothers in states where closures happened later. Of those not working, women ages 25-44 were almost three times as likely as men to not be working due to childcare demands. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/08/parents-juggle-work-and-child-care-during-pandemic.html

There’s been considerable content related to work-at-home and working parenthood in reports about technology company practices and policies. Human resource approaches and cultures at these organizations have influenced our workplaces in countless ways over several decades. Tech companies were in the vanguard this year, shifting all if not most employees to work from home. Several offered additional support to working parents. Yet, pandemic policies, and some actions, at some firms, are deemed unfair. Complaints are on the rise. As a one-time working married non-parent, then a longtime working parent, I could connect with the many perspectives in the New York Times’ story, “Parents Get More Time Off. Then the Backlash Started.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/technology/parents-time-off-backlash.html.

Celebrate or Not So Much?

So, back to the upcoming holiday, Working Parent Day. Last year columnists encouraged parents to take a break and relax. They suggested kids show their appreciation, do some extra chores, maybe make dinner, definitely do the dishes. This year, no such recommendations, at least not yet. There’s still time.

My suggestion would be to do something extraordinary, parents and kids. Even on a Wednesday. Because working parenthood is tough, perhaps exceeding tough in these interesting times. I’ve been there, done that, and now experience the trials, tribulations and, yes, occasional triumphs of working grandparenthood, caring, communicating and connecting with two future working women, my grand girls.

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