Dual-career families Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Dual-career families - Essay Example , couples in a dual-career relationship have jobs that require a high degree of commitment and effectively the developmental nature of the professions these couples engage in is high. In effect, such couples pursue careers while still performing their main roles in parenting. These relationships have certain characteristics such as economic rewards for the couples and ultimately to the family. In addition, the family derives an added social prestige when both parents are working. Furthermore, a personal investment on the part of both partners is evident when they commit their time and energy to their careers. However, the commitment of time and energy can influence the relationship of the couples within the family setup. Hamner & Turner (2000) noted that, many working couples with children experienced conflicts in their work and family relationships effectively influencing their performance and creating stress at both work and in the family. Such conflicts influenced greatly on the children’s behavior. In this regard, one big issue in dual-career families concerns absentee parents. As such, house helps, who at most instances lack the basic knowledge in parentage, have the biggest responsibility on children. On the other hand, commitment to work drains the energy out of the parents once they reach home and eventually fail to spend quality time with their children. Effectively, children will pick behavior, at times undesirable, from other people since the parents are not monitoring their children progress closely as should be the case. Faced with such challenges, there are various ways that dual-career families can overcome them. According to Hester & Dickerson (1984), different programs devised by extension personnel are essential in training couples on ways of improving their relationship. Such programs establish unique responsibilities in each relationship advising each couple on the best way to parent their children while both juggle with their careers,