Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
Being a new dad can be a very exciting experience but it comes with great responsibility such that dads need to be able to achieve a fatherhood-work balance. However, this is not always possible due to work commitments in order to provide for their families. The inability to strike this balance often makes dads feel stressed and can lead to depression with time.
The best thing about parenthood is that with proper planning, effort and commitment, it is possible to work and still be able to spend quality time with your children.
Here are some effective parenting tips on how a new dad can be able to balance between work and family:
Put your family into your daily schedule
The first effort towards striking a family-work balance is by realizing that your family is as important as your work. As such, you should not prioritize work over family.
If you are able to wake up as early as 5am to report to work, then you should put as much effort to spend time with your newborn. The easiest way to show up for your newborn and family is by including family activities in your daily calendar and schedule.
After you have made time for your family, the next thing you should do is be present at all times. Avoid cancelling family activities unless it is extremely necessary.
Your child will remember the times and activities you two partook together when he/she gets older. You do not necessarily have to spend money when taking time off your schedule to be with your family. At times, you can simply stay at home and enjoy a nice dinner together as a family.
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Make your working schedule flexible
Work flexibility goes a long way in ensuring that you have more spare time that you can spend with your family and your newborn baby. Being a new dad requires you to re-strategize your life by using your spare time with your family rather than before when you could hangout with your buddies all night long.
If you can have a day off at work or a long 3-day weekend, then you should aim at creating time for your family.
For dads who are able to work from home, using such an opportunity can make it possible to achieve a better family-work balance.
However, at no one time should you bring work home from the work place. While at home, you need to exclusively spend your time with your family and avoid interruptions created by work-related commitments.
Simplify your life
You do not need to be a superhero to be able to spend time with your family while, at the same time, attend to your work commitments. All you need to do is simplify your life so that you are able to plan your day and prioritize the things that are important for you and your family.
For instance, if you attend a weekly basketball game or swimming session with your friends, you can forego such activities and spend that time with your family. You need to present when your child is growing up and be part of their life.
New dads who value and care for their families are able to organize their lives as such so that they live simple lives and are present at work and at home at all times.
Such dads make their presence felt and experienced by their families even when they are away at work. The best thing about quality family time is that it helps you in nurturing your relationship with your spouse and children. You should let your family realize that they are important to you and that they constitute an important aspect of your life.
Show equal commitment and passion
As much as you are focused on making money, you also need to be committed and have equal passion in raising your kids and being an ever-present dad.
Parenting is all about hard work, commitment, and having the desire to be a good parent.
There is nothing like being perfect in parenting. When you show equal passion in attending to the needs and allocating time for your family just like you value your work or business, you will naturally be able to spend quality time with your family.
You will realize that most of the things that mattered to you before you had a family do not really matter.
Since you are new to being a dad and family life in general, you should not be worried when you make mistakes. Instead, you should use these mistakes as a stepping stone to learn more about parenthood.
It takes time to adjust to the new responsibilities and commitments of being a new dad but with time, you will get used and focus on being a good dad and family man.
Integrate your work and family
Technology has proven to be quite instrumental and effective in enabling new parents in integrating family life with working responsibilities.
For instance, you can use your smart device to monitor your newborn using an app such as a baby monitor. There are unique baby monitors that come with two-way intercoms through which you can talk to the baby while you are still at work or away from home.
What’s more amazing is that you can use the monitor to keep an eye on the nanny/the baby’s caretaker while you are still at your workplace. This works best for single parents who need to keep checking on their nannies to ensure that they are taking good care of the baby.
You should also separate work issues from family issues. If you are stressed at work, you should not bring that stress at home as you will most probably end up hurting those you love. Use your newly acquired responsibility as a new dad to encourage yourself and for self-motivation whenever you feel stressed.
Conclusion
To balance family time and work, new dads need to evaluate their lives and have their priorities right. Families whose dads are interested in their lives and are actively engaged in each other’s life often feel a sense of security, peace, high self-esteem, and confidence.
Research has shown that dads who balance family and work are usually very productive at work since they are at peace with themselves and their families. In addition to this, it becomes easy to prevent the likelihood of emotional distress and lack of confidence in children as they (children) feel loved and appreciated at all times.
About The Author
This article is written by Danny from MyParentingJournal.com, a parenting blog that shares tips, advice, best practices, and resources on various parenting topics. Follow My Parenting Journal on Twitter and Facebook
Nice Lynne 🙂 Something i’m sure most new Dads battle with but would never openly admit so.
I think we as moms get so involved with how much we are struggling that we forget that the dads have just as much of a hard time, just in a different way. My hubby is lucky in that he likes to be at home with us, so he doesn’t have conflicting interests like being at the pub with the boys!
Ive heard many stories like that, i was also very lucky with my littles ones dad, he was always with us and was extremely hands on. I think the first time i ever had to bath my little one was at 4 months old when he was out the one evening, he had done it every evening since she was born. I was left feeling like a useless Mom haha
Even though we are no longer together now, he still would rather have “family time” than hitting the pubs with friends.
This is a very nice post. I think personally this is what many new dads and moms struggle with. Thank you for the great tips. Love your blogs
I think new dads have a alot to cope with i see hubby works till 10 some nights and i can see it bothers him he havent spend time with our boy as he came so late but then next day he make sure he can get off normal time just to spend time with our boy before he sleeps and then he make some time for us so ill never tell him his his always at work as i know they are loaded with work and very busy or tell him he doesnt spend time with us bec he try and i know his working hard to give us a better life but also try hard to spend time with us his between one of these Work-family schedules. Im glad to have someone like him does help alot and make sure family is top on his list.
Dad’s have a lots to deal with also making sure his family have all the needs they always worry about to take care after every thing financial
Hubby always coming home later and tired but he always make times to spend with his son