Your Working Parent Accomplishments (Yes, Accomplishments)

Hello working parents -  

Let’s take a few minutes to focus on your accomplishments.  (If you just winced, or thought, “Yeah right. Accomplishments? I’m just trying to get through year end!”, hang in there with me.) 

Throughout our lives we’ve all been trained to think of accomplishments as big, positive, milestone-type achievements than anyone can see and admire.  That means things like graduating from school, running a marathon, finishing off a huge work project, or getting a promotion.  

But working parenthood isn’t just about obvious milestones or achieving in ways that other people applaud.  It’s also about perseverance and consistency, making your own authentic choices, and showing up for the people you care about most.  Which means that your working-parent accomplishments, while enormous, won’t land on your LinkedIn profile or performance review, and may not bring you any high-fives.  They’re quieter, and more personal….which means they may not feel like valid “accomplishments” at all.     

Let’s change that.  As we come down the home stretch of 2021, I want you to give yourself some credit for the major things you’ve done as a working mom or dad this year – for what you’ve accomplished right here at the intersection of career and caregiving.  

Think over the past 12 months and ask yourself: “what was most important to me, as a professional and as a parent?  What did I work hardest on, or try to do consistently?” Maybe you eased the kids back into the routine of in-person school despite the craziness at work this Fall.  Or maybe you set up a new and better childcare arrangement….or despite long hours on the job, read to the kids most nights….or served your family hundreds of mostly-healthful meals.  Or – somehow! – you kept your cool in all the Zoom meetings, even on the days when your boss was being annoying and the baby hadn’t slept.  Maybe you negotiated more flexibility in a new job. 

Those things were hard to pull off, and they mattered. They’re working parent accomplishments: big, real, important and yours.  

Have a working parent accomplishment you want to share?  Email it to stories@workparent.com. 

In other, encouraging news: Check out this week’s New York Times story on how prospective employers are (finally!) focusing less on resume gaps.  Meaning: if you’ve taken time off from career to focus on family, getting “back in” may be much easier than you think.

And, finally, a new (free!) resource for you: Make your family’s bedtime routine more educational and fun with help from Bedtime Math.  This site offers a nightly math-and-logic problem that parents and kids of any age can solve – enjoyably and together. 

Workparent:

Support and solutions for all working parents

– and no judgements, ever.  

For more of the working-parent tools and techniques you need right now, grab a copy of my new book, Workparent: The Complete Guide to Succeeding on the Job, Staying True to Yourself, and Raising Happy Kids.

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