This podcast is made up of people telling the story of their families and the diverse ways that they tackle the dual responsibilities of paid work and caring for children. We talk about what works and what doesn’t (for each individual family) and we think about what would improve each family’s work-life balance.
The reason I have created Head of a Codfish is I can see that there are predominant examples that people see, which are often some combination of the male continuing full-time work and the female fitting paid work responsibilities in around child caring (which can mean no paid work, part-time work or full-time work).
Due to almost only seeing these examples, I think families often fall into these structures by default. I don’t think that these arrangements are a problem per se, but I think a) they don’t take into consideration the strengths, weaknesses, and ambitions of the individuals involved. and b) they can open up the risk of family members getting overloaded – overloaded by sole breadwinning responsibilities, overloaded by sole child caring responsibilities, overloaded by adding paid work on top of child caring without taking anything away.
With this podcast, I am documenting a range of different examples for families to draw from, a broader range than you would observe purely from family and friends, and presenting them in a format you can easily consume on the way to work or slugging away cleaning.
What brought me to this subject matter is a point made in the book ‘The Wife Drought‘ by Annabel Crabb. This book discusses the notion that to date. workforce participation for women has been largely increased by simply adding paid work on top of child care responsibilities, resulting in one overloaded and overstretched parent. Those women are gaining ground and responsibilities in one direction without relinquishing any existing ground.
It argues a more sustainable approach is to get the other parent to take some steps out of the workforce, creating a bit of ‘give and take’ instead of ‘give and give’. This podcast provides a range of examples, some of which include veering away from the ‘default’ options, and some include men taking some of those steps out.
Who should listen to it?
I think many people would benefit from hearing about a diverse range of situations and solutions: parents, grandparents, friends, co-workers, managers, and business leaders to name a few.
However, the people I am really aiming this at are families who are weighing up the options as they move into the phase of family life when children are added to the mix and families who are already in the thick of that phase and want to look different options.
About the Podcaster
Hi, I am Hayley.
I like to make things: good content, humans, good food, clothes, and peoples days better. I am a wife to 1, mum to 3 human children and 1 podcast baby. With Head of a Codfish I have managed to turn chatting with my friends over wine into a resource that engages and supports working parents. I don’t get enough sleep. I currently work in digital marketing and have over 10 years of experience working in content and communications.