Work Life Balance For Working Mums: Do You Feel Like Your Kids Get Enough Attention

With the advances in technology, the line drawn between working life and home life becomes increasingly blurred. And, not just for those who work at home, but all working mums in general. It is all to easy to find yourself asking your kids for a 'special no talking breakfast' as you answer your emails at the breakfast table.

Feeling like you give your children the attention they need and deserve is challenging enough for any parent with active lives, let alone for busy working mums. If you have before and after school care, it is easy to feel distant from your child's day at school and the events that may have happened. Especially, if you have boys who are reluctant to say 'hello', let alone tell you the highlights of their day..

Here are some thoughts to help ensure that you, as a working mother, can decrease the guilt and spend some extra quality time with your children..

1. Quality not quantity. Remember that the time of mums who don't work is not necessarily the halcyon bliss of indulgent parenting that we can be made to believe. Often spending more time with children can lead to an under appreciation of that time. TV can be more of the equation that sitting reading especially as the household chores build up. Counter intuitively perhaps, when working mums spend lower amounts of time with their children, the time tends become more valued and more focused.

2. Make mealtimes count. Switch off the phone and leave the mess in the kitchen until later. Sit down at the table with your children during their meal times, even if you aren't necessarily eating with them. Introduce conversational themes and habits, such as everyone sitting at the table discussing things that have happened during the day or within that week. Just being there to listen is all a child craves and will provide them with the self-confidence and belief that their views matter.

3. One on One. If you have more than one child, attempt occasionally to spend time with them individually, doing activities that are special and appropriate to them. Although spending time as a whole family is critical at weekends, it can, once in a while, be seen as the perfect opportunity to divide and conquer. Attention that is given to age appropriate activities is seen as a true treat when the usual family focus tends to be geared to the lowest common denominator - the youngest sibling.

4. Plan in fun. Yes the post is waiting for you when you walk through the door, as are myriad other chores but take a deep breath, take off your coat and go and have five minutes of fun with the kids. Whether its a game of chase or a relaxing board game, you will be astonished at how quickly the stresses of the day seem to fall away as you regress to childhood.. Just think - not only are the kids enjoying their time with you, you are lowering your blood pressure at the same time!

With these tips in effect, you are sure to begin feeling like your kids are getting the attention they deserve.


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Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, exhausted working mums who long for more hours in the day, more balance and a little space to think now and again! If you're a working mom who needs easy strategies to help you manage it all, get our FREE eBook "From Chaos to Calm: 5 simple steps to balance for working mums" => Coaching Mums