Do you ever find yourself listening to one of your kids, and they're talking to you and they're telling you something that's very important to them, but halfway through you realize you're not really present in the way you wish you were?
There's this little voice that goes off in your head that says, “Man, I wish I was a better parent. I should be listening to my kids more.” This person's trying to tell you something that's hugely important to them, but at the same time you're like, “Oh my God, I just can't take this anymore. I can't just be a parent. I need to have some sort of identity of my own.”
Well, the good news is, if you can create a 4-Day Work Week lifestyle, and if you can get more free time for yourself, you might be able to solve this issue. In fact, there are 5 main ways that working a 4-Day Work Week has helped me be both a better parent and a happier person.
The 5 Benefits of Being a 4-Day Work Week Parent
1) Friday is Our Day
On Friday, I'm not Francisco's dad foremost, and my wife is not Luna's mom first. As long as the kids are in school I'm Wade. My wife gets to be Rossanna. It's pretty awesome. We get to be ourselves. We get to do things we enjoy.
People will try to tell you that you need to grow up and once you have responsibilities, you need to put the past behind you. But there are certain things I still like doing, even though I’m grown up and I have responsibilities. I still like going to the beach.
I still like dating my wife. I like being able to have that kind of relationship. I don't want to just be my wife's parenting partner. I want to be that person that she remembers that we started dating. I want to be that, and being able to have Friday, whether it's me, by myself playing beach volleyball and getting to hang out with my friends, or whether it's us doing something as a couple, going to the beach.
I, or we, get to do our thing and that allows us a chance to recharge, so that when we come back on Saturday and Sunday and we're present with the kids, or even Friday night, we really have the energy. We've had the chance to recharge because we've been able to just be ourselves for a few hours.
2) If They Don't Leave, You Can't Miss Them
This is something I always tell my kids’ friends when it's time to go at the end of the play date and they're not ready to leave yet. I say, “Hey, if you don't leave, we can't miss you! See, how it works is you leave and we miss you, and then we want you to come back!” There was probably about a 5 or 6-year period where I was around my kids constantly. I wasn’t working a 4-Day Work Week. I wasn't taking time off. I wasn't taking care of my needs as an individual and I began to resent being around the kids and blaming them for things that weren't their fault. I thought I wasn’t happy because of them, or I didn’t have enough free time because of them.
But actually, I just wasn’t managing my time well. You need to get some time away from your kids to be able to want to be around your kids again. The same is true of your family, your friends, or pretty much anyone else.
3) School = A Guaranteed Babysitter Most Fridays
That is, during the day at least. This means you have time during the day, as long as you're not going somewhere really far, to be able to do things, either as an individual or as a couple, without worrying if you can afford a babysitter. You've already paid for it with your taxes or if you're paying for private school, it's there. The kids are being taken care of. They're as safe as they're going to be, and so you can just do your own thing because you have everything else taken care of.
It's a great way to have time uninterrupted and without worrying or freaking out about whether the kids are okay.
4) Errands Get Done a Lot Quicker on Fridays
Now, I personally don't like to do errands on Fridays, but if you have time on Fridays and you need to get certain things done, you might as well.
Most people are not out in the stores on Fridays. They're at work. So, getting things done happens a lot quicker. Once again, this frees you up to really have Saturday and Sunday be a true weekend, rather than spending Saturday running errands and going between kid stuff and Sunday just resting up for Monday, just to do it all over again.
5) You Can Truly Take the Day Off
What I mean by this is that people with kids very often say, “You know what? I just need time. I just need a day, where I don’t have work, or errands, or even too much fun stuff to do. I just want to relax.”
Having the freedom to not have an agenda, to just spend some time relaxing, is a very important part of the 4-Day Work Week lifestyle.
