Is your job stress affecting your kids?
Categories: Money & Work, Development
I recently read an article about how job stress affects family life. Although the article was interesting, it seemed like a no brainer to me. When I worked outside of the home, there was not a day that went by that I didn't feel some sort residual stress after work. As I rose through the ranks and the hours of my work week increased, that anxiety only worsened. It often made parenting an extra challenge at the end of a hard day. I can also recall when I was a child that my brother and I would stay far out of my father's way when he first returned from work. We would approach him at the dinner table after he had some time to go for a walk, take a shower or just relax. According to the article, my father had the right idea when it came to dealing with job related stress. A long, hard day at the office is often best dealt with by taking a few minutes for yourself before you jump into the role of a parent. Does your job stress affect your kids? How do you deal with it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lisa J. 1-26-2007 @ 6:27PM
My daughter (9 years old) is typically doing her homework when I get home from work, around 5:30 or 6:00 on most days, or hanging out with my husband, who'd usually home a little earlier. My husband and I have a nice routine of having a glass of wine in the living room for thirty minutes or so and chatting about our days, which really helps both of us unwind before we start making dinner. I've found it's a good way for me move from "work" mode to "family" mode, especially since I adore my job and sometimes it's hard for me to mentally let go of a project. So this gives us a chance to talk about something exciting/stressful that happened at work, so we're not still mentally venting when it's time to interact with our daughter. And it's a nice way for us to reconnect at the end of the day! But if one of us is wildly stressed for some reason, the other will take over and do more of the house/childcare, although that happens very rarely.
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d 1-26-2007 @ 8:41PM
i dont have a kid yet, 27 weeks prego but i am sure that work stress will affect. still figuring out the ways to reduce, being i work in child welfare i will have to not minimize when kids are acing out etc when there are minor problems being that the ones at work are always so complex and huge!!
i think hugging my kid though at the end of the day will make my work more worthwhile.
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Ann Adams 1-27-2007 @ 1:35AM
I remember greeting my kids lovingly and then asking for ten minutes please to get it together. They usually understood.
Even now there are times when I need that ten minutes.
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