3 truths about hustle culture and spending time with kids
We never get time back, meanwhile we get sucked into the hustle culture that often prioritises work over time with kids. A 2012 study by Huggies Little Swimmers found 63% of parents wished they had done more activities with their kids, such as teaching them a sport, and more than two thirds said it was easy to forget their kids wouldn’t stay little forever. Top regrets from working parents include working too much, worrying too much about little things that didn’t matter, not playing with kids more, and not going on more holidays. This differs parent to parent, but that is a lot of parents with regret. So here are three truths that will help us remember what really matters long term.
Why should we prioritise family over hustling?
1. Your family is forever.
A happy home is the solid foundation you fall back on, when things go wrong in the outside world. Sacrificing time with your family is like sacrificing your health. It’s just a matter of time before consequences show up - illnesses or broken relationships. Waiting till later in life to repair broken family relationships is also difficult. Kids value time and positive memories with you, not the money you slaved away to put into their education or the latest toys. Remember, it’s the feeling they’re left with from their childhood that determines what kind of relationship you have with your adult children and grandchildren later on in life.
2. Your job is temporary; if you run a business, you have the rest of your life to grow it.
It may feel like a race to keep up with work demands, or stay relevant as a business in an ever changing world. The rising costs of living and school tuitions really don’t help either. It’s important to take a step back and remember that we will, like all generations that precede us, live through economic downturns in our 20s or 30s. We may take extra years to recover from financial setbacks, but we don’t get the rest of your life to be with young children. Material comfort is important, but so is building your family. We can choose to prioritise our children a little more, and accept that it may take a little longer to grow our careers and businesses. Keeping everything in balance means sacrificing bursts of progress, and that’s okay.
3. Time flies, especially as we get older.
The older we get, the quicker time slips by. Many of us think, ‘I’ll spend more time with the kids once I get this promotion’, or ‘I’ll take them to Disneyland when work calms down’. While you’ll never feel like you have quite enough money, or feel your business has really reached its maximum potential, your kids will grow up quickly and move away from home in a matter of years. Value this growth period and be okay with being a work in progress. It’s better to take a few extra years to progress in your career and finances with a happy family, than to reach these achievements earlier but forever regret missing out on your children’s milestones.
The takeaway
How you balance work and kids is a very personal approach, and not everyone wants it 50/50. There are parents who find more joy in work, and others more in raising their children. That’s okay, as long as you stay true to what you want most, and know you can do things differently from your parents and peers. Be honest about what matters to you so you aren’t left with regrets later in life, when it’s too late to make changes. You only get to raise a family once!
We hope you found this helpful! If you need support, we offer 1:1 parent support sessions to help you relieve the stresses of parenting long term. Simply get in touch with us and we’ll find a time!