Blog #4

What are the characteristics of a good family? I don't feel that there is one answer for this question but rather everyone is going to answer the question differently based on what there perception of a good family is. To me a good family is a family that spends quality time together. A family that respects and loves one another and they work together to benefit the family as a whole. To me my family is good family when I know that I am caring for my daughter to the best of my ability and seeing to all of her needs while at the same time spending quality time with my daughter and being able to connect and form that special bond with her that will last forever. Although these things make work for our family they may not be the needs or desire of another family.

What does it mean to balance career and family? To me balancing career and family is being able to do work and take care of my family equally so that neither side suffers. Being able to drop my daughter off at school every day and then go to work to me is balancing my work and my family because I know that she is arriving safely at school and I get to share in those moments of taking her and being able to talk to her on the drive there as to what she will be doing in her classes today and doing any last minute preperations for tests. I am lucky to have a job that understands that there are certain events for my daughter that I have made a commentent to her to be at. For example parent teacher conferences and after school functions that she should be able to enjoy as a child along with her peers. Another way that I am able to balance work and family is being able to talk on the phone with my daughter as she is walking home from schoool and again when she arrives to home safely. I think one of the best things that I learned as working mother was not to take my work home with me. Once I get home that is our time, its time to fix dinner and talk about how her day went. Its a time to sit down and do homework together and leave the cell phone in the other room.

What factors make this balancing difficult to achieve? Some times things come up that are unavoidable like getting a call from the school nurse that my child is sick and we are already 2 people down that day and it is impossible for me to just pick up and leave. Now that my daughter is getting older she has become more active in sports so balancing family and work has become more of a challenge. My daughter plays softball and they practice 2 nights a week and practice starts the same time I get off work. It take me 30 mins to drive to and from work so I would have to leave work almost and hour and a half early to be able to drive home pick up my daughter and drive her back to practice which happens to be right down the street from where I work. So in order for this to work we had to reach out to family for help in getting her to practice and then I would meet her there and take her home after practice which meant that 2 nights a week we no longer got to sit down as a family and eat dinner together.

How have changes in traditional gender roles made work and family issues more complex? With more women getting educated and wanting careers it is changing the way the traditional roles within the family. With mom now out of the home working the husband may have to step up and take on more roles and responsabilities within the home such as cleaning, preparing meals and shuffling the children to their various activities. This can be challenging for the family when the roles of the parents are suddenly reversed. Children may be accustome to the way mom did things and it may be an adjustment to the way dad does things. We can only hope that there would be no atimosity or resentment from the father who has now having to do things which for generations individuals have labeled womans work.
Employers can be sensitive to their employees family needs or obligations by sitting down and discussing the needs of the employees family one on one with the employee. The employee needs to understand that they have been hired to perform a certain task and that these tasks need to be done. The employer on the other hand could realize the time and expense that has gone into training this employee and the benefit of working with this employee so that both parties benefit from a situation that may be short lived.
How might having the support of family members, workers or neighbors make balancing priorities easier? I think it is very important to reach out when help is needed rather than to try and burden the load on your own in silence. When there is an issue of children arriving home prior to their parents check with a neighbor to see if it your children could go their till your arrival home. If your children will be arriving home along after school then sit down and work with them and so that they know what the rules are while they are home alone and what their roles and responsabilities are until you arrive home. Also involve your coworkers in the change that has taken place make them aware that you will be recieving a call everyday around this time from children to let you know that have arrived home safely. If there is an issue of getting children to after school activies for example team sports work with the other parents on the team to secure your child a ride to the activity and in return you could be the picking up parent that drives the children home.

Blog #3

I have had two children in my life. With my first child "Bronson" I worked full time while Bronson was cared for in a private in home daycare. It was difficult trying to get time off without jeopardizing my job to get Bronson to his checkups at the Doctors and then having to call in sick to stay home when Bronson was ill. There were times when I felt overwhelmed because I was the one who dropped Bronson off at the sitters then went to work, sometimes my lunch hour was spent running errands to pick up household items that we needed, and then it was back to work were I had to make sure that I got out of there on time in order to make it back to the babysitters before a certain time. With me being the primary contact person with the babysitter I had to make sure that she had diapers and wipes and other things that he needed while at her home and I also got to write that check to her every week and yes there were times that I felt like all I did was work to pay the sitter and was it all really worth it? Most often my husbands work kept him out later and on call so I was usually the one to arrive home first and start dinner and maybe a load of laundry along with feeding and bathing Bronson. With my second child Bailey I decided to be a stay at home mom but I still need to help support my family so I decided to do childcare out of my home as a way of supplementing my income. Now instead of working 40 hours a week I worked an average of 50 to 60 hours a week doing childcare which mean 3 times more the mouths to feed for breakfast and lunch, my house had to been cleaned thoroughly daily (where as with my first child I would do a thorough cleaning each weekend) When my daughter turned 2 I suddenly found myself a single parent which meant that when childcare ended at 6pm I still had to go out and do the shopping and worry about servicing the car along with paying all the bills doing all the household upkeep and repairs and the dreaded yard work. One valuable lesson that I learned about childcare is that many people assumed that just because I worked out of my home that I had more free time on my hands. When it came to needing someone to help out with a project within the community or my family MY name was always the first to come up because I was the one who was home all day. People didn't realize that although I was home I had a very difficult job of caring for not only my child but other peoples children. Running a simple errand meant packing up one very large diaper bag with different sizes of diapers and sippy cups extra outfits in case of an accident and loading several car seats into my car. I believe that the work that women do raising children and tending to a home is greatly under appreciated.

Blog #2

Sex Segregation is the segregation or dividing of individuals by sex (gender). As far as how I feel about how sex segregation is represented in the employment at ASU I really never thought about it. So I sat down and made a list and I have to say that my instructors at ASU have been pretty evenly divided as far as male and female. I also looked at other areas within ASU that I had come within close contact. The two adviser's that were available for me to meet with since starting ASU have been females until recently my advisor is now a male. One area that I did not a slight tip in the scale was my involvement with TA's all but one have been female. Within my home and work place I am surrounded by women. My home right now consists of 3 females: First there is my mother who is a nurse ( a job which is most often held by women), then there is me; I work front office specialist for a private practice(again another job which is often times held by a women ) here the Dr's are both female and the only male working in our office is Jason the office manager.... and then we have my daughter who is only 13 but hopes to grow up to be a nurse one day. ..After listening to the radio report, "Moms Become Breadwinners As Job Losses Hit Men," discusses how women are more and more becoming the Breadwinners of their families and the reason this is happening is because of the downfall of the economy and the jobs that are being hit. We have seen a significant decrease in the construction and manufacturing jobs, these were jobs that were typically held by males. This forced more women into the breadwinner roles in their family with some women taking on second jobs to support their families and still women are being paid less than men in the workforce.

It's all about me

Hi my name is Jill and I am soo exicted that I have finally figured out this blogging stuff. I am a Senior at ASU graduating this Fall as a Justice Studies major. You can't even begin to describe the feeling of finally being able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Right now I work full time and I"m taking my final four classes at ASU. I am a single mom of a beautiful 13 year old daughter who is the love of my life and she plays club softball....so if I'm not at work or sitting at home on the computer doing homework...I am at the field watching her play which brings me great joy...I am so excited to be in this class and look forward to the interesting material that lies ahead.....