Читать книгу The Parental Leave Playbook - Sue Campbell - Страница 39

Whether you are a mom or a dad, the shock of this transition can be exacerbated by any role and identity confusion you might experience when you become a parent, and again when you go back to work. This can be particularly challenging if you are like many of our clients at the Center for Parental Leave Leadership and the work you do is a big part of your identity—after all, you have already spent a significant portion of your life building your career and the majority of your waking hours working. You may feel like you have your current work life pretty well figured out. You understand your role at work, and you have a home life that is, to some extent, chosen and predictable.

The shift to a working parent identity can bring intense inner turmoil as you try to balance and integrate changing priorities and increased responsibilities at home with those at work.

Societal ideals, personal values, and organizational pressures all contribute to shaping this new reality. Although mothers and fathers may share some similar experiences, they still face very different cultural expectations about their roles at work and at home. Women are particularly vulnerable to pressure to conform to the conflicting roles of ideal worker and good mother. For men, societal expectations about fatherhood tend to center on the ideals of the good provider and the involved father. Additionally, many working parents face the expectation that their return to work should be easy and seamless, which is based on the mistaken assumption that they are the same person they were before going on leave.

Although understanding your own role and identity changes through this transition is crucial, it can also help to think about the people around you and how the roles they play may affect your leave experience and employment (see sidebar Stats: Moms versus Dads).