Work-Life Balance

Abstract

When I was growing up, my dad went off to work at the bank every day, and my mom was home running the household and taking care of me and my brother, Bob. Dad spent most of his days at the bank, but his hours were pretty regular, and on his days off he taught me how to fish and play golf and took me to hockey games – we were big hockey fans! Mom saw us off to school every morning and was there with a smile and a hug every afternoon; in between, she saw to all the little details that make a household run smoothly. That was how things went in the 1960s and early 1970s in suburban America. Of course, there were some kids who didn’t get to spend as much time with their dads because those dads put in extra hours at the office, and there were other kids whose moms worked outside the home. But it seems to me that because gender roles were more rigidly defined then, achieving a balance between work and the rest of life was easier.