The Working Parents' Handbook: How to Succeed at Work, Raise Your Kids, Maintain a Home, and Still Have Time for You

Rating:
Summary: Useful resource for working parents
Review: Whether it's how to organize one's home, help create a family-friendly workplace or deal with the stress of working and rearing children, this book is an invaluable resource for employed parents. Human resource directors and parent educators may also use this handy volume as a supplement to their information and training sessions. Underlying the many useful tips and how-to's are some positive principles for individual and family life. Among these are: the value of knowing your own strengths, challenges and beliefs; the joy of accepting self and others; the usefulness of employing what Diana Baumrind first charcterized as authoritative parenting, which maintains a balance of warmth and control. Gearing parenting strategies to the developmental stage of the child is another plus in Murray's approach. The book itself is "user-friendly" in format featuring graphics and narratives with notes, sidebars and checklists. Topics covered include current family configurations, family priorities and mission statements, childcare options, employment issues, organization and delegation of tasks, stress management and flexible workplace policy ideas. One of the most appealing features is the use of stories from other working parents and their worst and best moments. Murray's concluding words capture the essence of her joining attitude: ". . . knowing we're not alone in this balancing act is a comforting thought. People before us and people after us will face the same impossible schedules, the same runny noses, the same mad morning rushes to the car, and the same startled faces when we pull baby bibs from our briefcases. Parents all over the world will worry about the care their children are receiving, fret over the issue of quantity versus quality time, pray that the educational system is doing its job, and hope that someday--down the road--they'll know they made the right choices" (p. 258). Reading Murray's book, in my opinion, will be one of those right choices. Phyllis Michael, Associate Professor of Human Development Warner Pacific College Portland, Oregon