“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” ― Alain de Botton. Working and raising a family or working and having a social life is not something that everyone can pull off. The texts “Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket”, “Diary of a Mad Blender”, and “The Child's View of Working Parents” bring together the ideas of the difficult task that is working but still being part of your family's life.
“Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket” is about Tom and his wife. Tom needs to stay home to work which means missing out on the plans they made together, something he does often. “There he got out his topcoat and hat and, without Waiting to put them on, opened the front door and stepped out, to go find his wife. He turned to pull the door closed and the warm air from the hall rushed through the narrow opening again…” ( Finney) When the yellow paper originally flies out of the window Tom is willing to risk his life to save his job. After his near-death experience, he realizes how much he cares for his wife when the paper flies out of the window for the second time he just laughs and continues on his way to find his wife. Tom suddenly saw his work as futile if he could not be with his wife.
“Diary of a Mad Blender” is about a mom who is trying to balance life and work by reading self-help books. “It was far easier for me to splice more work into my week then to add time for rest and relationships for me, at least, extreme integrating is a rigged game- in favor of work.” (Shellenbarger) The author is describing her experience after a week of trying to have more time for her kids she actually has fatherless time and feels multitasking is for work only not for time with family. This supports the thesis because kids can tell the difference between making time for them and spending time with them while doing other work.
“The Child's View of Working Parents” is about how working long hours doesn't only affect the workers but it affects their children too. “Children don't seem to mind their parents work. But they do wish that when their parents were around they were less tired and stressed” Working long hours does not only affect the parents by making them tired or stressed, but it also affects our children. Kids seem to be all right with their parents working they just wish that once in a while they will be put first. Parents who work long hours make their kids worry because they want their parents to get to work safely, which is more stress than a child needs.
Overall All three text showcase the idea that you can not have it all and sometimes you need to let work go. It is almost impossible to balance life and work, people can tell when you are half-heartedly spending time with them and they tend to enjoy that time less. If you focus wholly on life then your performance at work may hinder. You need to chose what is most important to you and let that be a priority.
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