On this week’s Parenting segment, one mother is struggling with a new job that has affected her ability to be with family.
“I recently got a new job, meaning that I am no longer able to work from home, at least for the foreseeable future,” she told Moncrieff.
“Due to financial reasons, I had to move job, and while I am finding my feet, it’s taking up a lot of my time.
“My sons have commented how I’m no longer home in time for dinner, how they miss my cooking and I’m always tired when I get home.”
The stress of a new job has been made worse by her sons’ trouble to adjust to the new schedule.
“How do I reestablish the boundaries of what they should expect from me as a mum, in this new life?” she asked.
Child psychotherapist Joanna Fortune said everyone is “allowed to struggle because this is a transitional period”.
“We all have a bandwidth, we have a limited capacity for how much we can take on,” she said.
“If you were coping better with [the new job], your son’s demands would not be as stressful for you.”
Joanna, assuming the children are roughly “seven to nine years old”, said they are at an age where they “just love to immerse themselves in the injustices of the world”.
“[They’re thinking] how unfair everything is to them,” she said.
“When you say they miss your cooking, I’m going to take they miss the familiarity.”
Parenting on a new schedule
During the transition period, Joanna said the mother must “activate” anything she can in her wider support network, including relatives, childcare and school.
“Acknowledge the change, share it’s hard for you,” she said.
“It’s going to take time, but it’s hard right now – ask them to share their experience and do that with acceptance and empathy.”
Joanna recommended creating a “family schedule” taking into account the mother’s new hours so her sons feel like “active agents” in the change.
Listen back here: