Episode 07: Cathy Part 2

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This episode is Part 2 of my chat with Cathy, HQ of a family of 4. Her family unit includes 2 kids and a partner who is unable to be in the paid workforce at this point, and we talk about Parental admin, workplace relationships and leaving your child at the playground!

The Lowdown

– Family of 4
– 1 parent working part-time (3 days)
– 1 parent not currently able to work (recovery from workplace injury)
– 1 at school
– 1 at kindy

2:44 What works well
3:16 Constant communication
3:26 OCD Organiser
3:40 Parental Admin
3:48 Notices from school, blogs to check
4:43 Pretty goldfishy week
5:06 Maintaining a rhythm
5:18 Grandparent around the corner
5:44 Those emergency days
5:50 New job and not sick leave balance and sick kids
6:46 Workplace culture around sick leave and kid related absences from work
8:06 Relationships in the workplace
8:26 What doesn’t work well?
8:40 Once you develop your routines what works well
9:24 What are things going to look like when both parents are back in the paid workforce
9:40 How will it effect me
9:50 Less ‘fat’ built into the average day
10:12 Staying back to get work done will be harder
10:26 Juggling priorities
11:16 Reevaluating current role – less sustainable with more competition for time
11:35 Current role quite demanding
12:48 Currently quite well resourced
13:00 Family responsibilities well supported?
13:06 Rhetoric around balance and flexibility but how that is applied on the ground is different
13:36 Need to be very clear and assertive to achieve that flexibility
13:58 Taking time off when working part time
14:40 Need to have punched the clock on the agreed number of hours
14:55 Work relationships and how much personal information to reveal in order to gain understanding/flexibility
15:14 Need to feel comfortable and trusting to disclose family details
15:33 Distinct boundary between work and home
15:48 Workload creep when working part time – doing a full-time amount of work
17:24 How could your workplace be more supportive?
17:30 Hire more staff!
17:54 High-level principles are good but middle and lower management may not have the right authority to convert that into tangible actions
18:36 Organisational structures and who has the power
19:22 Funny or disastrous moments?
19:36 Leaving a child at the playground!
20:38 Packed lunch at home on the bench
21:15 Crazy hair day
21:37 I am the adult, I’ve got this covered!
22:20 “Mum you haven’t strapped me in”
23:34 No man is left behind
24:26 Is family what you thought it would be?
24:32 Didn’t have a clear idea
24:46 Knew it would be different from my mum’s experience
24:52 Generation of women who had to stop work when engaged or married
25:22 I always knew I would be working beyond that point
25:34 Work aspirations instilled due to experiences
26:32 Parallel universes – work and idea of future children
27:36 Starting family later and impact on family size
28:00 Creating opportunities for children that I didn’t have
28:08 Raising human beings that appreciate those opportunities
29:30 How we spend school us as children vs. our children
29:50 Getting that balance right
30:30 Generational difference with how much free time and how it is spent
31:12 Leaving hospital with a newborn
31:38 Where is the security checks and questionnaire?
31:51 Instincts kick in
31:56 Mothers group
32:18 How did we get here?
33:28 Experience with a second baby
33:48 Second babies more relaxed and ‘go with the flow’
34:38 Understanding better that things are a phase that will blow over so you don’t need to intervene as much
35:10 Breaking the boundaries with the first
36:04 Having friends with a bit older kids
36:26 Realistic consequences
37:26 Advice?
37:56 There is not right or wrong so choose the best fit for your family
38:10 Parental judgement
39:20 Village life and the need to connect with people
41:00 Every family is different and what works for each family is different
41:12 The benefit from having a range of different approaches to work and workload in the community
43:50 Get the core right then build the layers up from there

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