You’re probably familiar with articles discussing how “mom skills” translate well in the workplace, especially when it comes to multitasking and prioritizing. However, you don’t hear much about the other way around. In this post, we’ll take a look at five ways working parents can use their skills to keep a happy, orderly home.
(Photo Credit: Sebastien Wiertz/Flickr)
Professionals are often told to not bring their work home with them, which is understandable if we’re talking about the negative aspects of work. However, if we’re talking about the structure, teamwork, and synergy that are often found in office settings, then that’s a whole other story.
One difference between your office life and home life is that you don’t have children for bosses and co-workers (despite it seeming like that most of the time). A workplace has protocols that workers are expected to follow, and when they don’t, managers take disciplinary action to correct and prevent those situations from happening again. Yes, chances are, you have ground rules for your household, too, but your kids probably don’t care to follow them and will even go so far as to break the rules intentionally. In their minds, you’re not the boss of them.
SPOILER ALERT: You are the boss, and you just got a much-deserved promotion to CEO. Effective immediately.
Here are five tips to help you manage your households like a CEO and ensure that your company is operating at maximum efficiency and profitability.
1. Create a “family handbook,” or at least some sort of clear-cut guidelines/rules that outlines who does what, when, and how, and what is and isn’t acceptable in the household. Additionally, define what happens if and when those rules are broken (e.g. no internet/phone/cartoons) so that there isn’t any argument when the time comes.
2. Hold “board meetings” at least once a month. This will be a time for the entire family to get together and put it all on the table. If there’s conflict that needs resolving, or maybe a suggestion on how to do something more efficiently, then this is the time to hash it all out and come to agreements on how to move forward. I guess this could also be considered “family time,” too.
3. Encourage teamwork and collaboration. There’s nothing sweeter than seeing your family working together toward a common goal. If you have a project that requires a team effort, assign each family member a task to complete that suits his or her strengths – much like what is commonplace in an office setting.
4. Integrate technology into your everyday life to manage everyone’s schedules and activities. Your own schedule is probably tough enough to manage, but then throw in the rest of your family’s schedules and it becomes near impossible to keep up with anything, really. Given the fact that millennial moms would rather give up sex and desserts before their smartphones, it makes sense that working parents would jump on the idea of integrating apps to help you better manage your family’s lives.
5. Establish a reward system that gives credit where credit is due. When family members complete chores, do their homework, and keep their rooms tidy without you having to ask 10 to 15 times, set up a reward system that recognizes their good deeds and rewards them accordingly. Consider it incentive for your family to chip in and pull their weight around the house – it’s about time, isn’t it?
Bringing your work home with you isn’t such a bad thing, after all. Just be sure to establish the necessary boundaries to ensure that you have an acceptable level of work-life balance and don’t crash and burn. If all goes well, the order in your everyday life, in and out of the office, will give you a nice boost of confidence that you’re doing this working parent thing absolutely right!
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