Rx for Sanity: A Prescription for Working Parents

Wondering what it takes to hold on to your sanity from 9 to 5 and beyond? Here’s a six-part prescription.

1. An understanding boss. If you’re lucky enough to be employed by someone who understands that there will be days when you have to take time off work to care for a sick child or otherwise attend to your parenting responsibilities, consider yourself blessed. Sounds like you came out the winner in this round of employer roulette.

2. Supportive coworkers. While lucking out on the boss front is important, having supportive coworkers is even more critical because they’re the ones who can deal with your customers or otherwise put out fires when you’re out of the office on sick kid patrol. Count them among your most valuable assets.

3. A bullet-proof childcare arrangement.. You can’t hold things together at work if your childcare arrangement falls apart on a regular basis, so make sure you have childcare you can count on plus a back-up arrangement or two. You’ll reap tremendous dividends in terms of increased peace of mind.

4. Family members who are in your court. It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of having a supportive family—a partner and kids who will do double duty if it’s “busy season” at work and you stumble in the door exhausted every evening. If you’ve got ‘em, treasure ‘em. They’re pure gold.

5. An abundance of energy. It helps to have an abundance of energy if you’re juggling a family and a job. After all, by the time you stumble into bed at the end of the day, you will have pretty much worked a double shift! So make sure you’re safeguarding your energy supply by taking care of your own health. Otherwise you could find yourself running on empty, and empty isn’t good.

6. A sense of humour. The final ingredient in the prescription for sanity is also the most important: your sense of humour. You may not be able to sidestep all of the challenges that may go along with being a working parent—a sick child, nasty coworkers, or a to-do list that seems to have taken on a life of its own—but you’ll feel much better able to cope with the day-to-day insanity of you’re able to see the humour in the situation. And if you’ve got a particularly warped sense of humour, you may even have what it takes to cope with an extra-demanding job or an extra-large family. Bring it on, baby!