With Valentine’s Day today and the fact many of you have spoken to us through the blog and Facebook about being a single parent, eHarmony Australia has written a great post for us on how to better balance work, parenting and your love life. Enjoy! x
Guest post sponsored by eHarmony Australia
For single working parents, life can start to feel like one giant juggling act. Many parents struggle to strike a happy balance between their titles as mum, dad and colleague. In the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life, the role that usually gets sacrificed first is their search for love as a single man or woman.
The good news is that successfully juggling work, parenting and romance doesn’t have to be a superhuman feat. Here’s a look at some tips and ideas for making it all seem more achievable.
Let go of the guilt
The first step to feeling better about your lifestyle as a single working parent is to let go of the anxiety and guilt about things not being perfect. At the end of the day, very few people’s lives are actually ideal. From a historic perspective, single working parents are a relatively new group in society, and institutions like welfare, daycare and maternity leave haven’t quite caught up yet.
The key is to stop searching for perfection and let go of the super-woman working mum image we so often see in the media. Once you do that, you’ll feel a lot less pressure about how your family life ought to look and function.
Set clear boundaries
Your different roles as a parent and a work colleague will often compete for your time and your attention. It’s important to draw clear boundaries to make sure you’re committing your full attention and care to each part of your life. That means things like switching off the work mobile phone when you’re bathing your kids and setting clear guidelines about not being contacted by the office on weekends.
It’s important to think about when the most important times are to be around in your children’s lives, whether it’s when they wake up, when they come home from school or having a family dinner together.
Use your support network
Being a single parent doesn’t have to mean doing everything on your own. Make the most of the support networks in your life, like your family and friends. Always ask your workplace to consider new incentives to make your life easier, like an office crèche or flexible start and finish hours.
Finding a network of other single parents in your area is a great way to find like-minded people and gain advice on the best way for handling tricky situations. For instance any singles in Perth looking to meet people with a similar lifestyle, parenting groups often meet at South Beach for a swim or coffee at the Fig Café in Freemantle.
Don’t sacrifice your love life
Being a mum and a worker shouldn’t mean the end of your love life. You might not have the time to head out on blind dates, but there are plenty of other ways to meet eligible singles. Online dating for instance is an easy and convenient option that locates like-minded people in your area.
Best of all, with the option to tailor your matches, online dating sites make it easy to find singles who share your love for children, as well as your other core values and attitudes.
What are your tips for successfully managing work, parenting and love life?
No tips….go with whatever is working at the time – if there is one thing that I do say works…be kind to yourself – you are only human and can only fit in so much in one day!
Oh and have a cup of coffee (warm) at least once a day 🙂
I totally agree with you, Lisa. It’s important to be kind to yourself. AND I have a coffee mid morning EVERY day! 😉