By Barbara Schneider and Linda J. Waite
Co-Directors of the Alfred P. Sloan Center on Parents, Work and Children

Today, one experience of family life shared by most children under the age of eighteen is that their fathers and mothers are both working. With both parents now employed, how are dual earner families coping with the stresses and demands of balancing work and family life? A new book, “Being Together, Working Apart” provides answers to these questions. Based on an innovative study of 500 typical American families, results reveal how working parents are successfully managing their lives and promoting the well-being of their children.

Work plays a significant role in the lives of dual-career families, nonetheless having working parents does not negatively influence children’s academic goals, well-being, or their relationship with their parents. For most working parents, trade-offs and compromises between family and work obligations appear unavoidable. Having to choose between undesirable alternative often results in feelings of guilt and regret especially for mothers.

But work is not an escape from household responsibilities; mothers and fathers are happier at home than at work. For parents, work can also be an especially positive emotional experience providing them with an engaging cognitive challenge and sense of self not found in other situations.

Work becomes a problem for parents not because it is challenging or even demanding but because the expectations held for full-time workers collide with and overpower family needs. With cell phones and laptops in tow, working parents come in early, leave late, and take work home. “Many parents find themselves conforming to the image of the unconditional worker,” says co-author Barbara Schneider, recently appointed John A. Hannah Chair University Distinguished Professor in the College of Education and Department of Sociology at Michigan State University after eighteen years as a Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago.

While parents are sharing the bread earner role, the burden of managing the home falls largely on the mothers. Few emotional benefits are associated with housework, yet when the whole family engages in household tasks everyone is happier and more involved and more relaxed than if they have to do chores alone. “When mothers find themselves highly stressed spending time with family seems to be the best tonic for improving their emotional state,” says co-author Linda Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago.

Recognizing that time with family is important for achieving work-family balance; this must read book offers suggestions for how families can improve their own hectic lives. The book points out that bringing work and family into a reasonable alignment requires that both employers and employees address the urgent challenges that are undermining family life and worker productivity.

Visit http://www.cambridge.org for ordering information.