HBR Guide to Work-Life Balance

CHAPTER 17

How Working Parents Can Manage the Demands of School-Age Kids

by Daisy Wademan Dowling

For working parents with school-age children, June is especially chaotic. The season brings end-of-the-school-year projects, state testing, report cards, parent-teacher conferences, the transition to 10 long weeks of childcare arrangements, the awkwardness of explaining to colleagues why you’re out of the office again, the need to follow up with the pediatrician about health forms for September (they’re overdue already), and the worry about whether your child will do better in math next year with a different teacher.

Your task list is endless, your stress level high. And a lot of the work and worry seems to be coming from one place: your child’s ...