Eldercare and the Home Office: Making it Work
Now, after “only”
35-40 years, due to the sheer quantity of working women; more men
speaking out about and being involved in childcare responsibilities;
more men in senior positions with families and working wives; and
more women in senior positions, accommodating childcare is pretty
much “socially acceptable”.
TO MINIMIZE
THE IMPACT OF ELDERCARE, more and more Baby Boomer women are choosing
to work from home. It sounds like an obvious and easy solution and,
for many it is. However, there are factors that can blur the lines
between your work and eldercare responsibilities that you will want
to consider before taking that leap. Here are a few:
The nature
of eldercare
Unlike childcare, which has a predictable progression of needs –
and the assurance of larger blocks of time when the kids go to school
– eldercare is generally unpredictable and is, at least initially,
intermittent. So, while eldercare may require less time in the beginning,
as time goes on, it will require more – turning the drip,
drip, drip into a flood.
THE KEY TO SUCCESSFULLY
BALANCING THE HOME OFFICE AND ELDERCARE then is, rather than blending
and blurring the lines between work and home, separate more and
the lines sharper right from the beginning. Here are a few suggestions:
2. Set scheduled
work hours/days and make sure they\’re known to ALL –
including your spouse, children, and friends.
4. Schedule
specific days for eldercare appointments, and specific times in
the day for making and receiving eldercare-related calls and/or
emails.
6. Establish
home work rules, for example, what is and isn\’t an emergency,
and discuss them with all appropriate parties.
8. And last,
but by no means least, talk with your family, friends, and co-workers
and enlist their aide and support. There are a lot of Baby Boomers
facing the work-eldercare balancing act. By speaking up and joining
forces, perhaps it won\’t take 35 years to make eldercare socially
acceptable, too!
