What working parents may be experiencing in the baby and toddler years
Key takeaways
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Creating a mentally healthy and supportive workplace can be just what employee needs when they’re going through challenging times.
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Think about the policies and practices you can implement to best support the parents in your organisation.
Sleepless nights. Teething. Separation anxiety.
Parents aren't just dealing with one challenge at a time. Each new hurdle often has complex social, emotional and physical upheavals that come along for the ride. The baby and toddler years can be particularly depleting for parents. The support they may have received around the birth has dissipated, everyone has colds or sickness, parenting guilt has taken hold and the relentless demands on their time and energy can feel 24/7.
At this life stage, parents may be experiencing:
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Sleep deprivation and fatigue due to babies waking during the night, requiring night feeds or consistently waking early.
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Breastfeeding challenges – there is often a lot of pressure on mothers to breastfeed. This is challenging for some, and returning to work can represent an additional barrier in fulfilling breastfeeding intentions.
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Settling babies into new childcare or routines.
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Ongoing illnesses – babies and toddlers can be sick more often when they transition into daycare or a new environment. Parents can also experience more periods of sickness during this period.
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Stress and feelings of guilt relating to arriving late or leaving early, and also for leaving their young children in the care of someone else .
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Workplace discrimination, or negative comments from supervisors or co-workers. Often this comes in the form of ‘well meaning’ jokes.
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Loss of confidence and questioning their career.
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Job insecurity worries.
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Caring for children with additional needs.
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Juggling baby or toddler and older children.
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Financial stress.
How can you support them?
As is hopefully clear above, parents of babies and toddlers have a lot going on, and while you can't solve every dilemma at work, you can create a mentally healthy work environment.
Regularly check in with employees to discuss their challenges and ask how they are coping with the transition.
Create an inclusive culture and open door policy for new parents to have conversations about their mental health and admit when they need help or accommodations.
Flexibility is key – normalise taking time off to settle babies into childcare or to work from home to care for sick children. It may not be easy for your business, but this period of life won’t last forever. Do what you can and keep the door open for ongoing conversations.
Support taking leave (when needed) to care for kids, for dads as well as mums.
Connect parents in your business where you have a few. Sometimes it helps just to know you’re not alone.
Provide clear policies and open communication to minimise concerns about taking unpaid or carer's leave.
Allow employees to use working hours to sort out childcare-related logistics if needed, e.g. needing to be on hold on the phone to Centrelink to sort out childcare rebates.
In the next step in the journey, we'll look at how to create a culture of support for your employees.
