To: Augustus Gloop who wrote (99326 ) 3/23/2005 2:19:43 PM From: Grainne Read Replies (1) | Respond to The only families that are really functional where both parents work fulltime are families where both parents are extremely motivated and are giving up substantial chunks of their own free time to make it that way. They are also extremely well organized. I can remember scheduling family birthday parties at restaurants where we all ate breakfast and opened gifts, because that was the only time of day we would all be together. I can remember getting up very early (and becoming sleep deprived) because that time in the morning was the only time I could pay bills or make lunches or throw dinner in the Crock Pot. I remember sitting at the dining room table reading and helping my child with her homework for hours every night when I really wanted to be vegetating, watching television, because I was tired myself after working all day. There were constant problems to solve--what holiday camp to choose, who would take care of our child during frequent teacher in-service days, whose turn it was to leave work early when our child was sick, what summer program we could enroll her in. It is a very tiny minority of families, I can tell, who make it work. And I was always stressed out. I had high standards--we didn't eat junky fast food every night, and unlike most children who become latchkey children somewhere between eight and ten years old, our daughter was in an after-school program until she was fourteen. But the families who do this well are extraordinary.
