Over the weekend I attended an event called Baby+Work+Famiy sponsored by ParentMap magazine. About 300 people turned out, mostly women, to listen to others talk about work life balance, and to meet some vendors that might be able to make their life easier. (My company is offering a special workshop in June that is more focused on being a parent opposed to be an employee.) The key takeaways from the event keynote and panel speakers are not that different than what I teach in my workshops: take care of you so you can be strong for yourself which in turn makes you strong for others, know how to say no and ask for help. All good sound advice. What was missing for me, that I feel is the cornerstone of my work, was the notion of choice, that it is a choice to live with more balance every day.
Though the information was practical and it is very helpful to hear what others do that work for them, I’m not sure many people left feeling empowered; I do know they felt like they weren’t alone. I admit I’m totally jaded on this topic, and might be overly critical having been rolling this content out in corporations where it is all about the results and takeaways. Maybe my lesson is to ease up on the takeaways and be more in the stories sometimes, that sometimes community empathy is just as important as empowerment.
Either way, I applaud the magazine for putting on such a great, authentic event as I know there is a huge demand to gather, talk and learn about ways to feel more in control. There are millions of people that suffer from imbalance and don’t have even have the slighted idea about where to turn for a resource or how to find good role models to learn from, so I’m grateful for the magazine raising awareness on the issue in my community.
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