Balancing Parenthood and medicine
Balancing the full-time job of parenting with the full-time (even if the hours are only part-time) job of medicine can be exhausting. Parents may be overly controlling, permissive, absent, distracted or irritable. Making sure there is enough time and energy for children and partner is difficult but should be priority. Patients are not really more important than family, but can be more urgent, demanding and time-consuming.
What you can do
- 1. Talk to other medical parents about how they are managing
- 2. Do your best to be attentive, caring, respectful, nurturing and firm
- 3. Don’t overwhelm yourself with guilt if you’re not always perfect
- 4. Some ideas – Get a nanny, go part-time, encourage your partner to be a stay-at-home parent….
