Most parents feel like they’re failing during first year of parenthood

We need a generation that can take over after our own, and we need to make sure we’re working to leave them with something. In order for our society to function we need parents and we need workers. But our culture sure doesn’t make it easy to be both at the same time.

And if you feel like you are failing at the balancing act, know this: You’re not. You’re doing the best you can do, and that is enough. It’s not you that’s failing, mama. It’s the system. And it’s time to change it because way too many parents are internalizing blame they don’t deserve.

According to a recent survey commissioned by WaterWipes, 6 out of 10 parents feel like they were failing during their baby’s first year. More than 13,000 parents from around the world were polled and said their sleepless nights and hard days are just so different from the way parenthood is portrayed in popular media.

“The global research speaks for itself – at times parents are left feeling like they are failing, especially when they are surrounded by false images of perfect parenting, says Cathy Kidd, global VP of marketing at WaterWipes.

This follows another recent survey which found two-thirds of working parents in America feel like they are failing in parenthood because of pressures at work. That’s 66% of working parents who are waking up each day feeling like they can’t win, and that’s not okay.

Teresa Hopke is the CEO of Talking Talent, the firm behind the survey of 1,036 working American parents. “According to our study, a majority of parents feel like they are failing,” she tells Motherly, noting that the impact of these feelings of failure often isn’t apparent to employers because many working parents get really good at covering or masking their feelings of failure.

“But digging below the surface, we see the impact showing up in the form of increased stress, a rise in mental health claims, reduced productivity, decreased engagement, and overall impact on well-being,” Hopke says.

She explains that in some cases, this results in employees deciding to opt out of their careers, or move from company to company “in hopes of finding someplace where it feels more possible to do it all.” In other cases, she says, the desire for control can “translate into an undesirable leadership style.”

These issues disproportionately impact mothers, (today’s moms are not only devoting more hours to paid work than previous generations, but simultaneously devoting more hours to childcare, according to Pew), but dads are also suffering under the burden of their perceived failure to balance work and home.

This needs to stop. It’s time to examine why so many parents are unhappy at work, and what we can do about it.

Why workers aren’t using parental leave even when they have it

These days more and more companies are officially adopting parent-friendly policies like paid leave—a welcome first step—but the Talking Talent survey reveals that while these policies look great on paper, workplace culture often prevents parents from feeling like they can actually use them.

The parents surveyed reported taking less parental leave than was available to them: Women used only about 52% of the time they could have, and the men surveyed reported using just 32% of the time available to them.

According to Hopke, this points to a real problem with current parental leave policies—the policies are celebrated, but are not embraced as a practice in our culture. This means that parents are afraid to take the time they need, for fear of being penalized or seen as being uncommitted.

The survey found 64% of parents say they would have been more likely to take a longer leave if their colleagues had.

When it comes to fathers in particular, this phenomenon can be seen even in countries where parental leave isn’t an HR policy, but a national one. The UK’s shared parental leave scheme allows parents to split up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay between partners (parents can take leave one at a time or be at home together with their child for up to six months) but according to the BBC, few fathers (like as low as 2%) take part.

In Canada too, fathers have been reluctant to take the leave available to them, something the government hopes to change with the introduction of a “use-it-or-lose-it” leave policy for fathers and other non-birthing parents. Starting in March 2019, couples will be eligible for five weeks of extra leave, meaning a family can get 40 weeks instead of 35, but only if the second parent uses at least five weeks of that time, CBC reports.

Parents need employers and lawmakers to implement parental leave policies, but we also need our peers to embrace and encourage their use. In 2017 the government in Finland (the country The Economist ranks among the best in which to be a working mother and the only country in the world where fathers spend more time with school-aged children than mothers do) encouraged fathers to make the most of the country’s generous parental leave policy by literally launching a PR campaign to get dads to take their “Daddy Time.”

American workers might want to take a page from the Finnish government when it comes to encouraging everyone to use their parental leave. According to Hopke, grassroots campaigns within offices could change workplace culture stateside. She says parents should talk about why they are taking their leave in an effort to normalize it.

“Be vocal and transparent about being a working parent. When working parents try to cover in an effort to appear committed to the organization, they not only make it challenging for themselves, they also perpetuate a culture that doesn’t value the whole person. We can’t ever solve for the problem if the problem isn’t brought to the surface,” she tells Motherly, adding that while it’s great for workers to be vocal, companies need to do more than talk the talk.

“Paid leave policies are a great start, but in order to truly support employees and give them ‘permission’ to take the time they’ve been given, organizations need to create a culture of support,” she explains. “Raising the visibility of parental leave by providing a robust package of support for both employees and leaders will help everyone feel more comfortable with new parents taking the time away—without guilt.”

The childcare problem

Parental leave is a huge factor in the unhappiness of working parents, but childcare is another issue that contributes to moms and dads feeling like failures (when they are so not).

CNN reports American couples spend 25.6% of their income on childcare and single parents spend a whopping 52.7% on having their children watched while they work. As Motherly has previously reported, day care in America can cost as much as rent, or more than college in an era when many families find getting by on a single income impossible.

Childcare is expensive, but those who have it (even when it drains the bank account) consider themselves lucky, because many working American parents struggle just to find quality childcare.

Research shows high-quality day care programs are good for kids’ emotional and prosocial development, but when parents can’t find that kind of child care (due to long wait lists, a lack of choices in their area or prohibitive prices) and have to go with their second or third choice of childcare, they may spend the work day feeling guilty about leaving their child with a babysitter they don’t trust.

In the search for solutions, we might again look to Finland, where The Guardian reports “the state provides universal daycare.” The biggest bill parents could expect for day care in Finland is the equivalent of about $330 a month (the national average in the U.S. is about $800, according to Care.com, and can get closer to $2,000 in some cities). And in Finland, finding high-quality childcare doesn’t mean doing endless preschool tours, internet searches, interviews and waitlists. According to one parent The Guardian spoke with

“I guess the big difference is it is not stressful at all,” father Tuomas Aspiala told The Guardian. “Someone else organizes everything.”

According to Aspiala, when his children were waitlisted for day care due to a lack of available spots,the city of Helsinki organized a nanny share to look after them until spots opened up at the childcare center.

“The situation at the day care centre is really fantastic. It’s really close, the people who look after the children are wonderful,” Aspiala told The Guardian. “We really don’t feel guilty about leaving them there at all.”

If American parents could go to work without feeling guilty about where they are leaving their children, would 66% be feeling like failures? Probably not.

Finland’s childcare solution sounds like a dream come true, but let’s be real, no one is holding their breath waiting for the adoption of a similar system stateside.

In the absence of a national childcare solution, what can be done to help working parents who are bearing the emotional burden of a system that works against them?

Parents shouldn’t cover for the system’s failures, and should speak up

According to Hopke, individuals can challenge the system by being more understanding of all who are working within it. “[One] thing employees can do is challenge themselves to be more inclusive of all people and needs. The more we create a culture that values diversity and inclusion, the more likely people within an organization are to ask about and support the needs of everyone, including working parents.”

When this happens, change can move up in a company, and again, Hopke says parents need to be vocal about what we need and know that we are assets to our employers because of our dual role, not despite it.

“Organizing with others from a grassroots level to advocate for change is also something I advise. Many organizations we work with implement policies and programs as a result of efforts that came from a group of employees rather than an idea from HR or benefits,” Hopke explains.

Maybe you have an idea for implementing or optimizing parental leave, on-site day care, childcare subsidies, or flexible work arrangements that could be the catalyst for removing the burden of perceived failure from your fellow employees’ shoulders.

“Ask leaders tough questions about why they don’t support parents in the way that you are looking for and let them know that you know why it is important to the organization to value parents more,” Hopke suggests. “And in the end if you don’t get the answers you want, then do your research to find an organization that provides a culture you are looking for. They are out there and the more we push the envelope within our current organizations, the more there will be over time.”

Unfortunately, change does take time, but if you are feeling like a failure as a working parent, don’t.

You are doing what you need to do right now for your family and there is nothing wrong with that. But remember that you can use your voice (and your vote come election time—ask your reps about childcare and paid leave!) to change the culture that is making individual parents shoulder the pressure for an entire work culture.

[A version of this post was published January 8, 2019. It has been updated.]

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