Balancing Work & Family Life in a Marriage
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We often hear from couples about the stress of their busy lives. They work full time, go to school, raise kids, and even more – and they wonder why their marriages are having difficulty.
A disproportionate amount of time and focus on work can lead to breakdowns in communication and tension between couples.
In some instances individuals can be so focused on career advancement and or money that it affects the quality of their personal relationships and consequently happiness
If you're chalking up a lot of overtime, here are a few ways to gain a few more hours at home:
- Work smarter. Whether you are a morning person or an afternoon person, there is a period of time during the day that you are likely the most productive. Maximize the use of that time by doing your more creative, difficult tasks during that time.
- Skip going out to lunch. You can easily spend 1 to 1 ½ hours at lunch between the drive time to and from the restaurant, getting seated and served, eating etc. Why not bring your lunch? It’s cheaper, faster and healthier and can save a huge chunk of time.
- Move closer to work. While selling the house can be difficult, living closer to work can be a huge benefit. You can cut your drive time so significantly that you might gain anther hour or two per day- enough time to see your daughter or son’s soccer game and spend time with the family.
- Reserve the weekends for family. You need to agree that you will not go into the office or bring work home with you on the weekends. Instead, spend time doing something enjoyable with the family, be available to help out with household chores and spend some quality time with your spouse.
Healthy couples do not find the time to be together, they make time to be together. You and your spouse need to spend some time talking about ways you each can carve out more time for each other and the family. This may result in a number of changes; having more realistic expectations of each other, making more time for each other, agreeing not to bring work home and perhaps even changing job.
Once you experience the balance in your work and family life improving you’ll notice your overall level of satisfaction and happiness in your relationship grow once again.
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