The Precarious Balancing Act of Working as a Parent Carer

I’ve been thinking lately about how delicate the balance is between work and home when you’re a parent carer.

I feel incredibly lucky to have a job that allows me to work remotely and flexibly. It’s the only reason I’m still in the workforce. It’s the reason I can attend medical appointments without needing to beg for time off. It’s not perfect, but it’s doable. And I don’t take that for granted for a second.

But the truth is, I live with a quiet anxiety that one small shift at work, a change in leadership, a new policy, a restructuring, could unravel everything. And when I say everything, I don’t just mean my career. I mean the fragile ecosystem of my entire family.

For families like mine, where a child has complex needs, work isn’t just about income or personal fulfilment. It’s about survival. It’s about keeping food on the table while also being available for medical appointments, school meetings, hospital stays, emergency calls, and the daily (often invisible) labour of care that sits on top of an already full-time role. And that’s before we’ve even begun to talk about sleep deprivation, mental load, or the emotional toll.

It’s a constant calculation of how much we can give, and what happens when we simply can’t.

The reality is, many parent carers aren’t as lucky as I am. They’re pushed out of the workforce, not because they don’t want to work, but because the structures around them make it near impossible. Rigid hours, lack of understanding, presenteeism, and assumptions about reliability create an environment where flexibility is seen as a luxury rather than a necessity.

And here’s the thing: these families aren’t a small minority. And they’re not lacking in talent, commitment, or capability. They just need support.

So, what can companies do to retain and uplift parent carers in the workforce?

• Embed true flexibility; not just as a perk, but as a core part of company culture.

• Train managers to lead with empathy and awareness of different lived experiences.

• Build policies that support carers (parental leave, carers’ leave, flexible hours, remote options).

• Listen to parent carers and involve them in shaping solutions.

• Measure performance by output, not hours logged or office presence.

  
  

Because when companies create space for carers to thrive, they don’t just help individual families, they keep brilliant, passionate, multi-skilled people in the workforce. People who are problem solvers by necessity, who know how to juggle priorities, work under pressure, and show up with resilience.

I’m proud of what I contribute to my job, just as I’m proud of what I do at home. But it shouldn’t feel like one is always in conflict with the other.

To all the working parent carers out there: I see you. I am you. And we deserve to work in ways that don’t put our families at risk just for doing our best.